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-"•         '   The  Old  'Testament 


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BS  1171  .H27  1889 
Hare,  George  Emlen. 
Visions  and  narratives  of 
the  Old  Testament 


VISIONS   AND    NARRATIVES 


OLD  TESTAMENT 


GEORGE   EMLEN  HARE,    D.D.,    LL.D. 


NEW  YORK 
E.    P.    BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

31    WEST   TWENTY-THIRD   STREET 
1889 


COPYRIGHT   BY 

GEORGE    E.    HARE, 
1889 


Pressor  J.J.  Little  &  Co., 
Astor  Place,  New  York. 


TO    THE  READER, 

Much  of  the  substance  of  this  little  work   has 

appeared  in   articles   contributed  to 

periodicals  at  various  times  by 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS 


I.  The  Origin  of  the  Sabbath i 

II.  Sons  of  God  and  Daughters  of  Man    ...  i6 

III.  God  Wrestling  and  Wrestled  with     ...  2^ 

IV.  The  Sense  of  Right  and  Wrong ^\:> 

V.  ZiON 48 

VI.   Micaiah  the  Son  of  Imlah ()() 

VII.  The  Covenant  with  David 80 

VIII.  The  Lord  of  David 95 

IX.  Sufferings  and  Expectations .106 

X.  The  Servant  of  the  Lord 119 

XL  The   Outpouring  of  the   Spirit,   the   Great 
Day  of  the  Lord,  and  the  Events  which 

Must  Precede  that  Day 135 

XII.  The   Kingdom  to  be   Set   up  by  the   God  of 

Heaven 153 

XIII.   Belshazzar 176 

XIV.  The  Messenger  of  the  Covenant    .     .     .     .185 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  ORIGIN   OF   THE   SABBATH. 
Genesis  I.  i-II.  3. 

Ten  parts  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  begin  with  such 
words  as  these  :  ''  These  are  the  generations  of 
the  Heaven  and  the  Earth,"  ''This  is  the  book  of 
the  generations  of  Adam.""^  An  eleventh  part, 
the  first  in  order  of  place,  commences  with  the 
words,  *'  In  the  beginning;"  and  this  part  is  distin- 
guishable from  the  parts  which  follow,  not  only  by- 
its  commencement,  but  by  a  difference  of  style. 
The  name  of  the  Deity  throughout  the  portion 
ending  with  II.  3,  is  simply  **  God."  Throughout 
the  portion  beginning  with  11.  4  the  predominating 
name  is  either  **  the  Lord  "  or  ''  the  Lord  God."  It 
seems  to  be  admitted  that  such  facts  make  the 
record  beginning  with  Gen.  I.  i,  and  ending  with 
Gen.  II.  3,  a  whole  within  itself. 

*Gen.  ii.  4,  v.  I,  vi.  9,  x.  i,  xi.  10,  xi.  27,  xxv.   12,  xxv.  19,  xxxvi, 
I,  xxxvii.  2. 


2  Visions  and  Nari'atives. 

Several  of  the  phenomena  of  this  record  invite 
investigation,  especially  when  they  are  compared' 
with  other  parts  of  Scripture.  The  passage  seems 
to  represent  the  stars  as  brought  into  existence  on 
the  fourth  day,  whereas,  according  to  the  book  of 
Job,"  the  stars  *'sang"  at  the  founding  of  the 
earth.  The  days  mentioned  in  the  record  are 
alternations  of  light  and  darkness.  If  the  earth 
rotated  in  the  first  week  of  its  existence  with  the 
same  velocity  that  it  now  rotates,  they  must  have 
been  days  of  twenty- four  hours, — and  between  the 
thij'd  day,  until  which  the  earth  was  covered  by 
the  ocean,  and  the  sixth  day,  on  which  man  was 
created,  only  seventy-two  hours  would  intervene, 
an  interval  too  short  to  make  rain  necessary  or 
propitious  to  vegetation.  But  the  statement  of  the 
second  chapter  seems  to  be,t  that  during  the 
interval  before  the  creation  of  man,  every  herb 
grew  not,  because  the  LORD  God  had  not  caused  it 
to  rain  upon  the  earth,  and  there  was  not  a  man  to 
till  the  ground.  The  whole  account  supposes  the 
presence  of  a  by-stander.  The  language  is,  *' God 
said,  Let  there  be  light,"  ''God  said.  Let  there  be 
a  firmament,"  "  God  said.  Let  the  waters  under  the 
Heaven  be  gathered  unto  one  place."  Except  for 
the   sake    of  a   person   or  persons    present,    why 

♦Job  xxxviii.  7.  f  Gen.  ii.  4. 


The  Origin  of  the  Sabbath.  3 

address  things  non-existent  or  inanimate  ?  And 
the  by-stander  has  an  idea  of  man,  an  idea  of  dry 
land,  so  that  the  Divine  utterance  can  run  without 
explanation — "Let  us  make  man  in  our  image," 
**  Let  the  dry  land  appear,"  whereas  a  by-stander, 
possessed  or  not  possessed  of  such  ideas,  a  by- 
stander belonging  to  the  race  to  be  instructed, 
neither  was  nor,  according  to  the  record,  could  be 
present.  A  human  by-stander  was  not  yet  created. 
Much  is  made  of  alternations  of  light  and  darkness 
six  times  occurring  ;  and  the  significance  of  the 
six-fold  mention  of  these  alternations  does  not 
appear  if  the  first  chapter  is  read  (as  it  formerly 
was  in  church  worship)  by  itself.  Remarkable  is 
the  iteration  of  the  mention  of  the  Deity  :  **  God 
created,"  '*  God  said,"  "God  saw,"  "God  made," 
"  God  divided,"  "  God  set,"  "  God  blessed." 

The  curious  record  with  which  we  have  to  do, 
— the  first  record  in  the  book  of  Genesis — may  have 
originated  in  an  inspired  vision,  and  like  the  reve- 
lations of  Micaiah,  the  son  of  Imlah,  and  St.  John 
the  Divine,  may  be  symbolic,  of  the  nature  of  a 
parable.  The  seer  may  have  had  a  scope  the  same 
as  that  of  other  visions' of  which  we  hear  in  Script- 
ure, a  scope  not  touching  the  scientific  domain, — 
not  taking  within  its  range  any  points  of  chron- 
ology, except  such  as  were  essential  to  the  purpose 


4  Visio7ts  and  Narratives. 

of  the  Spirit,— a  scope  purely  theological  or  relig- 
ious. On  the  supposition  that  this  was  the  case, 
the  remarkable  phenomena,  mentioned  above  are 
capable  of  a  satisfactory  explanation.  With  rela- 
tion to  the  fact  that  between  the  third  and  the 
sixth  days— within  an  interval  of  seventy-two 
hours — the  earth  previously  covered  by  the  great 
deep  had  begun  to  want  rain  for  vegetation,  the 
remark  is  obvious  that  alternations  of  light  and 
darkness,  seen  in  vision,  do  not  need  to  be  under- 
stood of  periods  of  twenty-four  hours. 

If  the  Mosaic  record  is  an  account  of  a  vision 
vouchsafed  to  a  prophet,  the  fact  explains  the 
utterances,  **Let  us  make  man,"  "Let  the  dry  land 
appear,"  although  these  utterances  assume  the 
presence  of  a  by-stander,  and  that  to  this  by- 
stander, ''man"  and  ''dry  land"  were  familiar 
terms.  At  the  time  of  the  vision,  though  not  at 
the  time  represented  by  the  vision,  there  was  a  by- 
stander, viz.,  the  spirit  of  the  prophet,  and  to  this 
by-stander  man  and  dry  land  were  things  well 
known. 

A  vision  which  exhibits  the  sun,  moon  and  stars 
as  beginning  to  be  within  the  expanse  or  reach  of 
open  space,  in  the  course  of  the  vision's  fourth 
alternation  of  light  and  darkness,  hardly  needs  to  be 
reconciled  with  the  probability  that  these  heavenly 


The  Origin  of  the  Sabbath.  5 

bodies  existed  previously,  or  with  the  fact  that  in 
the  Book  of  Job  the  stars  appear  as  celebrating  the 
foundation  of  the  earth.  The  fiat  heard  by  the 
inner  ear  of  the  seer,  "  Let  there  be  lights  in  the 
firmament  of  the  Heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the 
night," — translate  rather  *'  Let  there  come  ^^  bearers 
of  light  in  the  expanse  of  the  Heaven  to  divide  the 
day  from  the  night  " — this  fiat  and  that  execution 
of  this  fiat,  which  passed  before  the  seer's  inner 
eyes,  were  compatible  with  the  fact,  if  fact  it  was, 
that  some  or  all  of  the  heavenly  luminaries  had 
existed  previously. 

Some  have  transferred  the  facts  which  the  in- 
spired narrator  has  exhibited  in  their  visional 
aspect  into  an  aspect  more  realistic.  They  have 
said  substantially  as  follows  : 

A  great  deep,  the  ocean,  covering  the  globe 
everywhere,  was  itself  everywhere  covered  by 
clouds  altogether  impervious  to  the  rays  of  the 
sun.  Total  darkness  was  consequently  upon  all 
things.  These  clouds  were  subsequently  rarified, 
became  penetrable  by  the  sunlight  ;  became  trans- 

*  The  verb  signifies  "  lo  become  "  or  "to  come  to  be,"  and  is  else- 
where translated  by  the  word  "come,"  Gen.  xv.  I  The  word  ren- 
dered "light  "  in  the  authorized  version  "at  Gen.  i.  1-5  and  18  differs 
from  the  word  so  translated  at  Gen.  i.  14.  This  last  word  is  some- 
times equivalent  to  "  candlestick  "or  "  candelabrum." 


6  Visions  and  Narratives. 

lucent  ;  and  this  translucency  continued  for  a  spot 
or  quarter  of  the  globe,  until  the  globe,  revolving 
on  its  axis,  ceased  to  expose  that  spot  or  quarter 
to  this  beneficent  influence.  The  lapse  of  time 
which  witnessed  the  appearance  of  light,  together 
with  the  lapse  of  time  during  which  the  earth  was 
again  in  darkness,  formed  the  first  of  the  six 
periods  which  appear  in  the  representation  of  the 
seer  as  days. 

At  the  beginning  of  a  second  period,  the  aeriform 
waters,  though  they  had  become  translucent,  were 
not  transparent.  No  object  could  have  been 
discerned  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  period 
except  the  thick  clouds,  which,  though  they  had 
come  to  admit  the  perception  of  light,  admitted 
the  perception  of  nothing  else.  Before  the  end  of 
the  second  period,  a  space  intervened  between  the 
"  deep,"  which  continued  to  submerge  the  globe 
and  the  region  of  thick  cloud  ;  an  expanse,  a  field 
of  sight,  in  which  objects  would  have  been  visible 
if  an  eye  had  existed,  divided  between  the  aeriform 
water  and  the  waters  of  the  ocean.  This  was  the 
period,  long  or  short,  to  represent  which  the  seer 
is  made  to  hear  the  utterance  and  to  behold  the 
making  told  of  in  the  words  "  Let  there  be  an  ex- 
panse in  the  midst  of  the  waters,  and  let  it  divide 
waters  from  waters.     And  God  made  the  expanse 


The.  Origin  of  the  Sabbath.  y 

and  God  called  the  expanse  Heaven.     And 

there  came  to  be  an  evening  and  there  came  to  be 
a  morning  ;  a  second  day." 

In  the  third  period,  the  ocean  ceased  to  submerge 
the  whole  of  the  earth,  land  became  apparent,  vege- 
tation rose  upon  the  surface  of  the  land,  each  vege- 
table having  within  itself  the  means  of  reproduction. 
This  period  is  symbolically  exhibited  in  the  words 
of  verses  9-13. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  period  the  expanse 
which  was  to  render  objects  visible  reached  only 
to  a  region  of  clouds.  The  expanse  could  not 
include  the  source  of  light,  the  sun,  or  the  moon,  or 
the  stars.  Before  the  fourth  period  ended  another 
stage  of  things  began.  The  heavens  became 
cloudless.  Though  the  sun,  the  moon  and  the 
stars  had  existed  before,  they  now  began  to  be 
within  the  expanse  or  field  of  vision.  The  seer, 
seeing  or  hearing  nothing  except  in  its  relations  to 
human  beings — the  change  and  its  beneficent 
results  appearing  to  the  prophet  in  their  religious 
aspects  simply — this  inspired  writer  depicts  the 
appearance  of  the  heavenly  bodies  in  the  words  of 
verses  14-19. 

If  such  a  series  of  conjectures  seems  probable,  it 
is  not  certain.  Such  conjectures  are  not  made- 
necessary  by  the  representations  of  our  passage, 


8  Visions  and  Narratives. 

however  they  may  consist  with  these  representa- 
tions. The  language  of  the  narrative  is  not  that  of 
a  physicist.  The  statement  runs  again  and  again, 
"  God  said,"  and  ''  God  made."  The  one  clause 
refers  to  the  origin  of  the  thing  afterwards  named, 
the  other  to  the  causation  by  which  the  design  was 
effected.  Both  clauses  bring  prominently  into  view 
the  Divine  action  and  leave  out  of  view  everything 
else.  That  which  appears  to  the  prophet  is  an 
ideal.  It  remains  to  discuss  the  responsibili-ties  of 
the  first  section  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  the  respon- 
sibilities which  have  been  falsely  attributed  to  the 
passage,  and  the  responsibilities  which  truly  belong 
to  it.' 

I.  The  record  with  which  we  have  to  do  is  not 
responsible  for  the  notion  of  a  metallic  sky,  or  of 
an  ocean  above  that  sky.  The  Bible  knows  not  of 
any  waters  above  our  heads,  except  waters  in  an 
aeriform  state,  i,  e.,  clouds.  The  firmament  of 
which  our  seer  speaks,  was  a  thing  which,  on  the 
second  day,  divided  the  waters  which  were  under 
the  firmament  from  the  waters  which  were  above 
the  firmament,  and  a  thing  which,  on  the  fourth 
day,  included  the  sun,  moon  and  stars.  The  firma- 
ment then — the  original  is  better  translated  on  the 
margin  of  our  Bibles,  the  **  expanse  " — can  hardly 
be  anything  but  the  medium  through  which  we  see. 


The  Origin  of  the  Sabbath.  9 

when  we  look  upward.  It  is  the  reach  of  space 
above  our  heads,  the  space  ordinarily  transparent. 
What  else  could  be  represented  as  dividing  the 
waters  from  the  waters.  The  notion  of  a  metallic 
firmament,  imputed  to  Moses,  is  the  invention  of 
interpreters. 

2.  The  record  is  not  responsible  for  the  opinion 
that  we  ought  to  reckon  the  Lord's  Day,  or  other 
of  our  days,  from  sunset  to  sunset.  The  words 
**  the  second  day  "  follow  the  account  of  the  work 
of  that  day,  and  imply  that  the  evening  and  morning 
mentioned  in  connection  with  that  account,  were 
the  evening  which  followed  the  noon  and  the  dawn 
which  ended  the  night  belonging  to  the  second 
day.  It  is  with  strict  accuracy  that  the  revisers 
of  the  current  English  Bible  translate  ''And  there 
was  evening  and  there  was  morning  "  a  second  day. 
The  like  may  be  said  of  similar  sentences  in  the 
first  chapter,  respecting  the  days.  If  these  sen- 
tences bind  us  to  any  special  mode  of  computing 
the  time  of  the  Lord's  Day  or  other  days,  it  is 
rather  to  the  computation  from  daybreg.k  to  day- 
break. But  it  is  hardly  within  the  scope  of  the 
vision  to  impose  any  such  obligation. 

3.  The  record  is  not  responsible  for  any  of  the 
different  opinions  advocated  by  interpreters,  in 
regard  to  the  questions — whether  the   duration  of 


lO  Visions  and  Narratives. 

the  chaotic  state  was  long-  or  short,  for  minutes  or 
for  ages,  whether  there  was,  or  was  not,  an  interval 
between  the  creation  and  the  choas  ;  and  if  there 
was  such  an  interval,  whether  it  lasted  for  millions 
of  years,  or  only  for  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  The 
account  is  reconcilable  with — and  does  not  tie  us 
to — any  of  these  opinions. 

4.  The  passage  is  not  responsible  for  the  opinion 
that  the  periods  which  it  denominates  days  were 
of  equal  length,  each  a  period  of  twenty-four  hours. 
That  they  were  not  periods  of  twenty-four  hours 
has  been  shown  from  the  hindrance  to  vegetation, 
arising  from  the  want  of  rain,  mentioned  in  Genesis  II. 
In  the  latter  passage  the  period  named  a  "  day" 
seems  to  have  included  not  less  than  three  of  the 
days  mentioned  in  the  first  chapter.  It  may  be 
added  that  within  the  limits  of  the  fifth  verse  of  the 
first  chapter '*  day  "  first  signifies  daytime  as  dis- 
tinguished from  night,  and  afterwards  includes  both 
daytime  and  night. 

5.  The  account  is  not  responsible  for  the  opinion 
that  light  existed  before  the  sun,  though  this 
opinion  may  be  consistent  with  the  account. 

6.  It  appertains  to  the  subject  to  say  that  the 
sacredness  given  to  the  number  seven  in  this 
account  belongs  to  this  number  in  many  other  of 
the  appointments  which  came  through  Moses".     The 


TJie  Orin'ji  of  the  Sabbath.  1 1 


-^ 


Passover,  the  great  festival  of  the  year,  was  to  be 
celebrated  for  seven  days.  Seven  weeks  after  the 
Passover  the  Feast  of  Pentecost  was  to  take  place  ; 
and  this  was  to  be  celebrated  with  the  use  of  seven 
lambs.  In  the  seventh  month,  and  to  be  kept  for 
seven  days,  was  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  The 
seventh  year  was  to  be  Sabbatical,  and  every 
seventh  Sabbatical  year  was  to  introduce  a 
jubilee. 

But,  not  insisting  on  a  matter  comparatively 
insignificant,  and  passing  from  negations  with 
regard  to  the  responsibilities  of  the  first  portion  of 
the  Book  of  Genesis,  to  affirmations  respecting  this 
account,  the  account  is  answerable  for  the  Sab- 
bath. This  section  of  the  sacred  book  winds  up 
v/ith  the  declaration  "  God  blessed  the  seventh  day 
and  sanctified  it,  because  on  it  He  rested  from  all 
His  work  which  God  creatively  did."  The  catas- 
trophe unravels  the  plot  :  the  issue  of  the  vision 
develops  the  plan  of  the  vision. 

The  words  are  such  as  to  imply  that  rest  is 
blessedness,  and  sanctity  a  duty  ;  that  it  was 
proper  that  a  day  should  be  set  apart  periodically 
for  the  enjoyment  of  this  blessedness  and  the  culti- 
vation of  this  sanctity  ;  and  that  the  facts  that  the 
Divine  Being  wrought  creatively  for  six  periods, 
and    discontinued    this     working     in    the     seventh 


12  V/sious  and  Nari^atives. 

period,  should  furnish  the  rule  of  the  periodicity — 
should,  for  Israelites  elevate  the  seventh  of  every 
seven  alternations  of  light  and  darkness  to  the 
blessedness  of  rest  and  the  dignity  of  sanctification. 
A  large  part  of  the  Christian  Church  has  for  ages 
celebrated  the  cessation  of  the  work  of  St.  Stephen 
as  the  crowning  act  of  his  life.  His  martyrdom 
was  that  by  which  he  finished  his  course.  It  was, 
as  it  were,  the  finale  of  his  career.  In  a  manner 
somewhat  similar,  Israel  was  to  celebrate  the  work 
and  character  of  God  by  setting  apart  the  seventh 
day  of  every  hebdomad  in  memory  of  the  time  at 
which  in  an  inspired  representation  the  Divine 
Being  gave  the  complement  to  His  creative 
action. 

7.  Another  thing  for  which  the  record  in  Genesis 
I.  I-II.  3  is  plainly  responsible,  is  the  doctrine  with 
which  the  account  commences — "  In  the  beginning 
God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  the  princi- 
ple or  doctrine  which  the  writer  shows  to  be  a 
chief  thing  in  his  mind  and  at  his  heart,  by  his 
remarkable  iterations:  *' The  spirit  of  God  moved 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters,"  *' God  said,"  *' God 
saw,"  ''  God  divided,"  ''  God  called,"  ''  God  made," 
— the  principle  that  the  earth,  the  daily  succession 
of  darkness  to  light,  the  expanse,  the  sea  and  the 
land,  the  vegetable  and  its  seed  or  means  of  repro- 


The    Origin  cf  tJic  Sabbath.  13 

duction,  the  sun,  the  moon  and  the  stars  ;  fish, 
reptiles,  birds  ;  last,  not  least,  human  beings,  and 
the  pairs  or  couples  in  which  these  appear,  are 
the  workmanship  of  God  ;  created,  contemplated, 
distributed,  arranged  for,  approved  by  the  Divine 
Being  ;  therefore  fit  themes  for  praise,  and,  not 
least,  for  Sabbatical  praise. 

In  the  books  of  Scripture  which  followed  the 
writings  of  Moses,  no  passages  are  to  be  found 
which  make  the  account  with  which  we  have  to  do 
a  ground  for  theories  touching  chronology  or 
natural  science,  whereas  in  these  later  books  of 
Scripture  applications  of  the  religious  teaching 
of  our  record  abound.  When  Psalmists  write — * 
"  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God ;  the 
expanse  showeth  the  work  of  His  hands,  day  unto 
day  uttereth  speech,"  ""  By  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
were  the  heavens  made  and  all  the  host  of  them 
by  the  breath  of  His  mouth,  He  gathereth  the 
waters  of  the  sea  together,  .  .  .  He  spake  and  it  was 
done,  He  commanded  and  it  stood  fast,"  **  To  Him 
that  by  wisdom  made  the  heavens,  .  .  .  that  stretched 
out  the  earth  above  the  waters,  .  .  .  that  made  the 
great  lights,  .  .  .  the  sun  to  rule  the  day,  .  .  .  the 
moon  and  the  stars  to  govern  the  night,"  ''The 
day  is  thine,   the  night  also  is    thine.      Thoit  hast 

*  Ps.  xix.,  xxxiii.  6,  7,  cxxxvi.  5-9,  Ixxiv.  16,  civ.  6-9. 


14  Visions  and  Narratives. 

prepared  the  light  and  the  sun,"  *'Thou  coverest 
the  earth  with  the  deep,  as  with  a  garment.  The 
waters  stood  above  the  mountains,  at  Thy  rebuke 
they  fled,  .  ,  .  they  go  down  by  the  valleys  into 
the  place  which  Thou  hast  founded  for  them.  Thou 
hast  set  a  bound  that  they  may  not  pass  over  " — 
w^ho  can  fail  to  find  Genesis  I.  i-II.  3  reproduced, 
and  reproduced  for  the  purpose  of  kindling  adora- 
tion. The  expanse,  the  day  unto  day,  the  word  of 
the  Lord  making  the  heavens  and  all  the  host  of 
them,  the  gathering  together  of  the  waters,  the 
stretching  out  the  earth  above  the  waters,  the 
making  great  lights  to  rule  the  day  and  the  night, 
the  fleeing  of  the  waters,  are  simply  allusions  to 
the  teaching  in  the  first  Mosaic  record,  and  are  ex- 
amples of  the  use  to  which  the  later  Scriptures 
apply  the  representations  of  the  first  Mosaic 
record — the  use — the  only  use — to  which  those  who 
would  imitate  the  Psalmists  should  apply  these 
symbolic  representations  of  religious  truth. 

In  brief,  the  creation,  up  to  the  time  of  the  mak- 
ing of  Adam,  an  event  of  the  sixth  day,  was  a  thing 
of  such  nature  that  the  knowledge  of  it  could  not  be 
acquired  as  the  knowledge  of  ordmary  history  is 
acquired — could  not  be  learned  except  in  a  super- 
natural manner.  Communications  of  a  supernatural 
kind  were,  according  to  Scripture,  often  made  by 


The  Origin  of  the  Sabbath.  1 5 

means  of  inspired  visions  ;  and  when  thus  made, 
might  be  reproduced  by  the  pen  of  the  seer  in  the 
form — with  nothing  but  the  imagery — wherein  they 
had  been  exhibited  to  the  inspired  eye  or  ear.  The 
phenomena  of  Genesis  I.  i-II.  3  are  such  that  they 
can  hardly  be  explained,  except  upon  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  narrative  is  of  a  symbolical  nature. 
Such  a  supposition  being  admitted,  difficulties  dis- 
appear. 

The  fact  that  our  Lord's  admonition,  "■  Take  heed, 
and  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees,"  conflicted 
with  the  manner  and  character  of  the  Utterer,  if 
taken  in  the  letter,  i.  e.,  of  the  leaven  of  bread,  re- 
quired and  warranted  the  taking  of  that  utterance 
in  a  meaning  deeper  than  that  which  lay  on  the 
surface.  So  it  was  with  the  cursing  of  the  barren 
fig-tree  ;  and  so  it  is  with  the  first  section  of  the 
Book  of  Genesis. 


CHAPTER    II. 

SONS  OF  GOD  AND   DAUGHTERS  OF  MAN. 
Genesis  IV.  26-VI.  1-5. 

The  fifth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  did  not 
appear  as  such — viz.,  as  a  separate  chapter — for 
many  centuries  after  the  death  of  the  writer  of  the 
book.  The  contents  of  the  passage  are  in  the 
nature  of  a  long  parenthesis,  and  the  opening  of 
the  sixth  chapter  connects  in  meaning  with  the 
close  of  the  fourth.  The  close  of  the  fourth  and  the 
opening  of  the  sixth  may  be  translated  as  follows — 
in  part  after  the  manner  of  the  revisers  of  the 
authorized  version  : 

"  And  to  Seth,  to  him  also  there  was  born  a  son; 
and  he  called  his  name  Enos  :   then  began  men  to 

call    upon  the  name  of  the  LORD and   it 

came  to  pass,  when  man  began  to  multiply  on  the 
face  of  the  ground  and  daughters  were  born  unto 
them,  that  the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of 
man  that  they  were  fair,  and  they  took  them  wives 

16 


Sons  of  God  and  Daughters  of  Man.  \y 

from  all  that  they  chose.  And  the  LORD  said,  My 
spirit  will  never  rule  in  man.  In  their  going  astray 
they  are  flesh.  And  his  days  shall  be  an  hundred 
and  twenty  years.  The  Nephilim  were  on  the  earth 
in  those  days,  and  also  after  the  sons  of  God  came 
in  unto  the  daughters  of  man  and  they  bare  chil- 
dren unto  them.  The  same  are  the  mighty  men 
which  from  of  old  are  the  men  of  renown.  And 
the  Lord  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was 
great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every  work  of 
the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  con- 
tinually." 

The  passage  is  accompanied  by  repeated  state- 
ments that  all  flesh  had  corrupted  its  way  and  that 
the  earth  was  filled  with  violence.  With  such 
accompaniments  the  passage  ushers  in  the  account 
of  the  deluge. 

There  are  curious  things  in  the  passage.  After 
mention  of  the  birth  of  Enos,  a  grandson  of  Adam, 
the  statement  is,  "  Then  began  men  to  call  upon 
the  name  of  the  Lord."  It  seems  difficult  to  recon- 
cile this  statement  with  the  fact  that  earlier  parts 
of  the  Book  of  Genesis  clearly  imply  that  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  Being  named  the  LORD 
obtained  much  earlier.  This  acknowledgment 
appears  in  the  exclamation  of  Eve  when  she  had 
become    the    mother  of  Cain, — *'I  ha/e  gotten    a 


1 3  Visions  and  Narratives. 

man  from  the  LORD," — and  in  the  declaration  that 
Cain  went  out  "  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord." 
The  exclamation  and  the  declaration  each  implied 
an  invocation  of  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  be- 
ginning mentioned  as  having  occurred  in  the  times 
of  Enos  may  have  been  a  nciu  beginning.  The 
times  of  Enos  lasted  for  more  than  eleven  centuries. 
Before  the  twelve  hundredth  year  of  the  Christian 
era,  men  had,  to  a  large  extent,  substituted  the 
worship  of  the  Virgin  and  other  departed  saints  for 
the  worship  of  the  one  true  God  ;  and  the  men 
called  Waldenses  may  be  said  to  have  begun  to 
call  upon  the  One  Sacred  Name  at  the  time  when 
they  departed  from  the  corruption  to  wdiich  they 
had  conformed.  Within  the  first  twelve  hundred 
years  from  the  creation  there  may  have  been  a 
widespread  apostasy.  Polytheism  or  atheism  may 
have  taken  the  place  of  a  pure  theism  ;  and  there 
may  thus  have  been  room  for  beginning  anew  to 
call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Before  the  times 
of  Enos  ended,  Enoch,  the  seventh  from  Adam, 
lived.  Enoch  walked  with  God.  God  took  him  :  he 
was  translated  that  he  should  not  see  death. 
According  to  St.  Jude,  this  patriarch,  the  seventh 
from  Adam,  prophesied  of  a  judgment  to  come. 
His   ministrations  may    have  been  the   means  of 


Sofis  of  God  and  Daughters  of  Man.  19 

bringing  about   among  men  the  resumption   of  the 
worship  of  Jehovah. 

After  the  genealogy  in  the  parenthetical  chapter, 
the  narrative  proceeds  with  the  statement  that  it 
came  to  pass  "  when  man  began  to  multiply  on 
the  earth  and  daughters  were  born  to  them,  that 
the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  man  that 
they  were  fair,  and  they  took  them  wives  from  all 
that  they  chose."  Who  were  these  sons  of  God  } 
They  may  be  the  same  as  had  anew  begun  to  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  same  persons  as 
had  been  previously  described  by  their  reformed 
practice — their  return  to  the  worship  of  the  one  pro- 
per object  of  adoration — may  be  designated  in  this 
place  by  a  phrase  importing  a  second  birth. 
Throughout  the  Scriptures,  men  to  whom  the 
Divine  influence  has  given  a  new  quality  are  spoken 
of  as  sons  of  God.  When  persons  wondered  that 
Saul  the  son  of  Kish,  a  man  not  previously  known 
as  a  "man  of  God,"  appeared  as  a  prophet,  they 
exclaimed,  with  reference  to  acknowledged  proph- 
ets, "  And  who  is  their  Father  .-*  "  meaning  that  He 
who  had  inspired  prophets  previously  acknowl- 
edged, could  bestow  a  like  inspiration  on  persons 
who  before  had  not  been  of  the  inspired  class.  In 
the  Proverbs*  ''the  children   of  the  LORD "  is    a 

*  Prov.  xiv,  26, 


20  Visions  and  Narratives. 

name  given  to  such  as  entertain  the  fear  of  God. 
In  an  utterance  addressed  to  the  Divine  Being  by 
a  Psahnist,"'^  the  ''generation  of  thy  children" 
describes  the  pious  as  the  progeny  of  the  Father 
on  high.  In  these  places  the  word  translated 
**  children  "  is  the  same  as  that  translated  **  sons  " 
in  the  passage  with  which  we  have  to  do.  It  was 
because  of  such  Old  Testament  ideas  that  our  Lord, 
in  response  to  the  Jew  who  had  asked,  t  "  How  can  a 
man  be  born  when  he  is  old  }  Can  he  enter  a  second 
time  into  his  mother's  womb  and  be  born  t "  could 
rejoin,  ''Art  thou  a  master  in  Israel  and  knowest 
not  yet  these  things  }  "  In  the  New  Testament  the 
use  of  the  phrase,  "  sons  of  God,"  runs  throughout 
the  volume.  Men  in  v/hom  God  has  engendered  a 
spirit  of  piety  are  denominated  children  of  God,  as 
if  persons  born  a  second  time.  It  may  be  objected 
that  the  contrast  between  the  phrases,  "  sons  of 
God"  and  "daughters  of  man,"  implies  that  the 
sons  of  God  were  not  sons  of  man  as  well.  The 
contrast  conveys  such  a  meaning  in  seeming  only. 
A  Psalmist  says,  when  speaking  of  the  godless  per- 
sons who  were  in  prosperity,  "  They  are  not  in  trou- 
ble, as  other  men,  neither  are  they  plagued  like  other 
men."  In  that  passage  the  phrase  translated  "  other 
men"  is  precisely  the  same  as  the  phrase  "man" 

*Ps.  Ixxiii.  15.  t  John  iii.  4,  10. 


SoJis  of  God  and  Daughter^  of  Man.  2i 

in  the  place  with  which  we  have  .to  do.  Had  our 
translators  inserted  the  word  ''  other  "  before  the 
word  men  in  Genesis  vi.,  as  they  do  in  Psalm  Ixxiii.,"^ 
they  would  have  given  the  sense  of  our  passage 
altogether  in  conformity  with  the  Hebrew  idiom, 
and  would  have  removed  that  appearance  of  con- 
trast which  to  many  appears  so  difficult. 

The  passage  proceeds  :  "  My  Spirit  will  never 
rule  in  man.  In  their  going  astray  they  are  flesh.'* 
The  meaning  seems  to  be  that  in  the  human  race 
the  fleshly  had  so  predominated  over  the  spiritual, 
the  intermarriage  of  the  sons  of  God  with  the 
daughters  of  man  had  so  disappointed  the  prospect 
of  improvement,  as  to  make  the  case  morally  hope- 
less unless  some  judgment,  such  as  is  mentioned  a 
little  further  on  (the  judgment  of  the  deluge) 
should  be  inflicted. 

As  to  the  language,  ''  his  days  shall  be  an  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years,"  it  is  the  days  of. the  race, 
not  the  days  of  an  individual — the  days  which  were 
to  intervene  for  man  before  the  signal  judgment — 
that  are  intended. 

The  narrative  proceeds  in  the  English  Bible  with 
the  sentence,  **  There  were  giants  in  the  earth  in 
those  days."  The  "  days  "  meant  in  this  part  of  the 
narrative  are  no  doubt  the  days   when  men  began 

*  Ps.  Ixxiii,  5;  compare  Jud.  x.vi.  7,  ii. 


22  Visions  and  Narratives. 

to  multiply  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  the  fact 
stated  is,  that  in  those  days,  after  as  well  as  before 
the  godless  intermarriages,  this  race  of  men  had 
lived  and  were  describable  as  the  mighty  men 
which  were  from  of  old  the  men  of  renown.  These 
"giants"  may  have  been  like  the  Patagonian  race, 
men  of  unusual  height  and  extraordinary  muscular 
development.  They  may  have  been  giants  even  in 
the  popular  acceptation  of  this  phrase.  But  there 
is  nothing  in  the  word  Nephilim,  the  Hebrew  word 
used  in  the  place  with  which  we  have  to  do,  that 
shuts  us  up  to  the  supposition  that  the  phrase  im- 
ports the  idea  of  gigantic  stature.  It  is  true  that 
the  spies  sent  by  Joshua  to  reconnoitre  the  land 
of  Canaan  say,  "  There  we  saw  the  Nephilim,  and 
we  were  in  their  sight  as  grasshoppers."  But  it 
was  a  false  report  which  they  brought  concerning 
the  land,  and  the  falsity  of  the  account  they  gave 
seems  to  have  consisted  mainly  in  exaggerations. 
The  word  Nephilim,  if  judged  by  cognate  Hebrew 
words,  imports  the  notion  of  falling.  Some  of  the 
ancient  translators  of  the  Pentateuch  (where  only 
the  phrase  occurs)  translate  it  as  meaning  men  that 
fail  upon  you,  men  of  violence.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  term  ought  to  be  translated  at  all  ; 
whether  it  ought  not  to  be  treated  like  proper 
names,   and   to   be  merely  transliterated.     Distin- 


So)is  of  God  and  Daughters  of  Man.  23 

guished  Hebraists  hold  that  the  word  is  of  the 
nature  of  a  Gentile  noun,  like  the  name  Titans 
among  the  Greeks.  As  this  name  was  by  ancient 
Greeks  interpreted  by  means  of  a  cognate  word 
which  conveys  the  notion  of  outstretchinGf/  and 
was  held  to  owe  its  origin  to  the  fact  that  the  race 
so-called  outstretched  their  arms  for  purposes 
of  violence,  so  the  Nephilim  may  have  received  the 
designation  the  sacred  writer  gives  them  because 
they  fell  2ipo}i  their  fellow-men.  It  seems  to  be 
because  the  class  of  men  which  is  meant  needed 
as  early  as  the  time  of  Moses  to  be  identified  to  the 
minds  of  his  readers  that  this  sacred  writer 
explains,  ''  The  same  are  the  mighty  men  which 
from  of  old  are  the  men  of  renown."  Owing  to 
such  facts,  the  revisers  of  the  authorized  version 
render  the  sentence  with  which  we  are  concerned, 
"  The  Nephilim  were  in  the  earth  in  those  days."  It 
is  as  if  a  modern  historian  should  name  the  Aztecs, 
and  thinking  the  designation  to  be  unfamiliar  to 
his  readers,  should  explain  that  the  race  dominant 
in  Mexico  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards  were 
the  people  meant  by  the  unfamiliar  name. 

Thus  much  is  certain :  that  oppression  drives 
even  a  wise  man  mad,  and  that  the  deluge  is 
described  as  having  occurred  because  the  earth  was 
filled  with  violence  through  men.     Moreover,  the 


24  Visions  and  Narratives. 

Nephilim,  as  well  as  the  intermarriage  of  sons  of 
God  with  daughters  of  man,  appear  in  the  account 
as  antecedents  to  that  overflowing  and  rampant 
wickedness  which  gave  occasion  to  the  flood  ;  as 
factors  in  bringing  about  that  judgment  from  which 
only  Noah  and  his  family  escaped.  The  history  is 
incoherent  unless  the  meaning  is  that  the  ante- 
cedent and  the  consequent  stood  to  each  other  in 
the  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  This  relation, 
therefore,  may  be  taken  for  granted.  The  Nephilim 
were  oppressors.  Their  oppression  maddened  men. 
Violence  was  no  doubt  returned  to  violence.  The 
wickedness  of  man  was  great  in  the  earth. 
*'  Every  Avork  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was 
only  evil  continually." 

To  pass  from  things  curious  to  things  practical  : 
in  the  family  no  influence  exceeds  that  of  the  wife 
and  mother.  It  usually  makes  or  mars  the  charac- 
ter of  the  offspring.  The  suasion  of  the  maternal 
lips,  the  supplications  of  the  maternal  heart,  the 
maternal  example,  who  but  God  fully  knows  their 
influence  .^  If  the  wife  is  unspiritual,  the  husband 
becomes  such,  if  he  was  not  such  before  ;  and  the 
children,  with  such  blood  in  their  veins,  such  influ- 
ences operating  upon  their  souls,  grow  up  with 
characters  not  religious.  It  was  the  intermarriage 
of  the  godly  with  the  godless,  the  fact  that  "sons 


Sons  of  God  and  Daughters  of  Man.  25 

of  God  saw  daughters  of  man,  that  they  were  fair, 
and  took  them  wives  of  whomsoever  they  chose," 
that  brought  about  the  Divine  utterance,  *'  My 
Spirit  will  never  rule  in  man,"  and  the  oracle 
which  limited  the  days  of  the  race  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty  years.     Beware  how  you  marry  ! 

It  has  appeared  that  before  the  death  of  Enos 
there  was  a  need  that  men  should  begin  anew  to 
call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord.  In  like  manner, 
before  the  deluge,  all  flesh  had  corrupted  its  way, 
and  in  consequence,  mankind,  with  the  exception 
of  eight  persons,  needed  to  be  swept  away  by  the 
waters  of  the  flood.  The  same  tendency  to  degen- 
erate appears  again  and  again  in  the  Scriptural 
history  of  men.  Before  the  call  of  Abraham  the 
descendants  of  the  family  which  survived  the 
deluge  had  so  deteriorated  that  the  call  of  Abra- 
ham became  necessary  for  the  preservation  of 
religion.  Before  the  carrying  away  of  the  Israelites 
to  foreign  countries,  these  descendants  of  Abraham 
had  so  degenerated  as  to  require  this  signal 
scourge — the  carrying  away.  If  the  scourge  had 
the  effect  of  reclaiming  this  people  from  their  idol- 
atry, the  place  of  image  worship,  and  the  vices 
which  go  along  with  idolatry,  was  taken  by  formal- 
ity and  hypocrisy  before  the  coming  of  Christ. 
Before   the    Reformation    new     shapes     of    image 


26  Visions  and  Nai-rativcs. 

worship,  with  priestcraft  and  the  making  void  the 
Word  of  God  by  traditions  of  men,  became  rife. 

This  tendency  to  degenerate  could  not  exist  in 
the  race  if  it  did  not  exist  in  the  individuaL  Who 
but  finds  such  a  tendency  in  himself  ?  Whose  zeal 
does  not  cool  ?  Whose  conversion  does  not  need 
to  be  repeated  ?  What  Christians  but  feel  as  appli- 
cable to  themselves  the  language  of  an  Apostle, 
*'  My  children,  with  whom  I  travail  in  birth  again 
until  Christ  be  formed  in  you  ? "  Beware  of  the 
tendency  to  degenerate.  We  must  check  this 
tendency  or  perish.  Daily,  more  than  daily,  let  us 
call  to  mind  our  past  hours.  Let  us  not  be  satis- 
fied unless  we  have  improved.  Let  us  by  prayer 
breathe  out  aspirations  and  breathe  in  the  Spirit  of 
God. 


CHAPTER   III. 

GOD  WRESTLING  AND  WRESTLED  WITH. 
Genesis  XXXII,  24-32. 

The  conduct  of  Jacob  toward  his  brother  Esau  had 
been  atrocious,  and  the  ferocity  of  Esau  had  vented 
itself  in  the  exclamation,  *' The  days  of  mourning- 
for  my  father  are  at  hand,  then  will  I  slay  my 
brother  Jacob."  Rebecca,  the  mother,  said  to  her 
offending  son,  *'  Thy  brother  Esau,  as  touching  thee, 
doth  comfort  himself,  purposing  to  slay  thee;  arise, 
flee  to  my  brother  Laban,  and  tarry  there  a  few  days  ; 
tarry  there  a  few  days,  I  say,  until  thy  brother's 
wrath  be  turned  away  ;  then  will  I  send  and  fetch 
thee  thence."  Jacob  thus  came  to  leave  his  father's 
house  for  a  foreign  country,  virtually  an  exile.  He 
continued  to  be  an  exile  for  twenty  years,  during 
which  he  became  the  object  of  envy  and  suspicion  : 
Trouble  after  trouble  came  upon  him.  At  a  sub- 
sequent time,  when  he  described  the  condition  in 

which  he  had  lived  these  years,  he  did    it   in   the 

27 


28  Visio7is  and  Narratives. 

words,  "  In  the  day  the  drought  consumed  me  and 
the  frost  by  night." 

Adversity,  however,  had  not  cured  Jacob  of  his 
faults.  When  he  returned  to  the  land  of  Canaan, 
Esau's  purpose  to  slay  him  continued,  for  aught  he 
knew  or  had  reasan  to  believe  ;  and  Esau  had  be- 
come far  more  powerful  than  himself ;  if  his  mother 
had  bidden  him  to  tarry  abroad  after  his  flight  until 
she  sent  him  word  and  fetched  him  thence,  no  mes- 
sage that  his  brother's  wrath  had  turned  away  had 
reached  the  patriarch  ;  on  the  contrary,  when  Jacob 
was  on  his  homeward  way,  the  tidings  were,  "Esau 
Cometh  to  meet  thee,  and  with  him  four  hundred 
men."  What  could  the  "plain  man"  with  women  and 
children  to  protect,  with  male  attendants  compara- 
tively few,  effect  against  the  "  man  of  the  field  "  fol- 
lowed by  such  a  force  }  The  danger  was  great,  and 
Jacob's  sense  of  it  was  intensified  by  his  conscience. 
No  means  of  defence  being  within  reach,  every  prop 
being  knocked  from  under  him,  he  had  recourse  to 
Him  who  had  promised  to  bring  him  in  safety  to 
the  land  of  his  father,  and  who,  notwithstanding  his 
demerit,  had  performed  the  promise — "  God  of  my 
father  Abraham,  God  of  my  father  Isaac  !  O  Lord 
which  saidst  unto  me,  Return  unto  thy  country  and 
to  thy  kindred,  and  I  will  do  thee  good.  I  am  not 
worthy  of  the  least  of  all  Thy  mercies  and  of  all  the 


God  Wrestling  and  Wrestled  With.  29 

truth  which  Thou  hast  shown  unto  Thy  servant. 
.  .  .  Deliver  me,  I  pray  Thee,  from  the  hand  of 
my  brother,  from  the  hand  of  Esau  :  for  I  fear  him, 
lest  he  come  and  smite  me,  the  mother  with  the 
children."  Night  came.  Both  natural  light  and 
the  light  of  prosperity  had  disappeared,  and  then 
occurred  the  transaction  related  in  the  words, 
"Jacob  was  left  alone  ;  and  there  wrestled  a  Man 
with  him  until  the  breaking  of  the  day.  And  when 
He  [the  wrestler]  saw  that  He  prevailed  not  against 
him,  He  touched  the  hollow  of  his  thigh,  and  the 
hollow  of  Jacob's  thigh  was  strained,  as  He  wrestled 
with  him.  And  He  [the  wrestler]  said.  Let  me  go, 
for  the  day  breaketh.  And  he  [Jacob]  said,  I  will 
not  let  Thee  go,  except  Thou  bless  me."  The 
patriarch  had  been  an  ill-deserving  man.  A  judg- 
ment upon  his  body  was  needed  to  remind  him  of 
the  fact.  The  "  sinew  of  the  hip  which  is  upon  the 
hollow  of  the  thigh"  showed  the  effect  of  the  touch 
of  ''the  Man."  When  the  sun  rose,  Jacob  limped. 
"  He  halted  upon  his  thigh."  The  infliction  may 
have  been  prospective  as  well  as  retrospective  in  its 
import.  It  may  have  been  intended  as  premonitory 
of  the  lot  which  caused  him  to  say  at  the  close  of 
his  earthly  existence,^  **  Few  and  evil  have  been 
the  years  of  my  pilgrimage."     Nevertheless  he  was 

*  Gen.  xlvii.  g. 


30  Visions  and  Narratives. 

to  subserve  a  Divine  purpose  in  the  interest  of  man- 
kind. After  tlie  occurrence  which  had  made  the 
preceding  night  forever  notable,  he  did  not  sin  in 
such  ways  or  to  such  a  degree  as  he  had  sinned 
previously  to  the  signal  vision,  and  this  event  may 
have  been  the  turning  point  in  his  career. 

Who  was  the  Man  that  wrestled  with  Jacob  1  He 
must  have  been  more  than  man,  for  when  the  scene 
was  ended,  Jacob  recognized  Him  as  the  Source  of 
blessing,  and  exclaimed,  "I  have  seen  God."  What 
was  the  meaning  of  the  transaction  }  What  of  the 
wrestling  .?  In  what  sense  is  it  said  of  the  Wrestler 
that  He  saw  that  he  prevailed  not  ?  What  was  the 
meaning  of  the  touch  and  of  the  language,  *'  Let  me 
go,  for  the  day  breaketh  V 

The  vision  was  a  representation  of  Jacob's  past 
and  present,  as  seen  from  the  Divine  point  of  view. 
When  Jacob,  with  unworthy  stratagem,  had  con- 
tended with  his  brother  for  the  paternal  blessing  ; 
the  contest  in  Jacob's  estimation  had  been  with  a 
fellow-man,  with  ill-fortune,  and  on  the  side  of 
prophecy,*  which  had  said  of  the  two  brothers  "  The 
elder  shall  serve  the  younger."  The  contest  had 
been  really  a  struggle  with  duty  and  with  God. 
When  blow  after  blow  had  fallen  on  Jacob — the 
peril  at  home,  the  necessity  of  fleeing,  the  discom- 

*  Gen.  XXV.  23. 


God  Wrestling  and  Wrestled  With.  31 

fort  of  banishment,  the  failure  of  the  message  prom- 
ised by  his  mother,  the  tidings  received  on  his  home- 
ward journey,  the  terror  at  his  brother's  approach — • 
the  blows  might  seem  to  Jacob  as  from  chance, 
from  ill-luck  or  blind  nature;  they  really  were  blows 
from  God.  This  was  the  thing  signified,  the  aspect 
which  was  put  on  Jacob's  late  history,  when  there 
wrestled  a  Man  with  him  until  the  breaking  of  the 
day.  God  had  contended  with  him  as  he  had  con- 
tended with  God.  What  is  the  meaning  of  the 
statement,  that  "the  Man"  saw  that  He  prevailed 
not  t  The  means  the  Man  had  used,  the  force  He 
had  thus  far  put  forth,  had  been  unequal  to  the  per- 
sistency of  him  with  whom  the  Man  had  struggled. 
Going  from  the  sign  to  the  thing  signified — God 
had  chastised  Jacob,  but  Jacob  had  not  been  broken 
by  the  chastisement.  God  had  not  prevailed  with 
the  soul  of  Jacob,  to  the  point  of  prostrating  the 
patriarch. 

An  expert  and  powerful  wrestler,  though  he  shall 
for  a  time  permit  him  with  whom  he  struggles  to 
hold  his  own,  may  at  length  prove  the  «kill  the 
wrestler  possesses  by  totally  disabling  his  antago- 
nist with  a  single  blow  skilfully  directed.  With 
the  thigh  dislocated  or  strained,  what  can  an  antago- 
nist do  }  '*  When  the  Man  saw  that  He  prevailed 
not  against  him,  he  touched  the  hollow  of  Jacob's 


32  Visions  and  Narratives. 

thigh,  and  the  thigh  of  Jacob  was  strained."  Un- 
able to  wrestle  any  longer,  Jacob  clings  ;  he  has  a 
hold  upon  the  feet  or  other  part  of  the  person  of  the 
Man,  and  will  not  relax  his  grasp,  as  appears  from 
the  words  of  the  Man,  "  Let  me  go,  for  the  day 
breaketh."  This  was  to  signify  the  reduction  of 
pride,  the  ceasing  to  struggle  v/ith  God,  the  cling- 
ing to  God  in  prayer,  which  took  place  when  Jacob 
wept  and  made  the  confession  and  supplication, 
*'  Oh  God  of  my  father  Abraham,  I  am  not  worthy 
of  the  least  of  Thy  mercies  !  Deliver  me  from  my 
brother,  from  Esau,  lest  he  slay  me  and  slay  the 
mother  with  her  children." 

The  patriarch's  true  strength,  which  lay  in  con- 
scious helplessness  and  dependence,  at  length  ap- 
peared. Day  was  about  to  dawn  upon  his  night 
when  the  night  was  at  its  darkest.  Ere  the  next 
twelve  hours  were  over,  Esau,  marvellously  and  per- 
haps suddenly  changed,  was  to  meet  him,  but  far 
from  falling  upon  him  with  his  four  hundred  men, 
was  to  embrace  him,  to  fall  on  his  neck  and  kiss 
him.  When  a  turn  in  a  man's  affairs  so  cheering 
takes  place,  it  sometimes  breaks  the  tie  between 
him  and  the  Divine  author  of  the  turn.  The  m.an 
thus  blessed  ceases  to  cling  to  God.  To  bring  this 
truth  to  the  surface,  to  forewarn  Jacob  that  he  might 
encounter    such    temptation,    may    be    the    thing 


God  Wrestling  and  Wrestled  With.  33 

signified  by  the  words  of  the  superhuman  Wrestler, 
*'  Let  me  go,  for  the  day  breaketh." 

We  have  seen  that  Jacob  had  long  striven  with 
God  with  a  bad  persistency.  We  have  seen  also 
that  when  the  Wrestler  had  prostrated  him,  when 
Jacob  piteously  confessed  his  worthlessness,  when 
his  heart  gave  forth  the  supplication,  God  of  my 
father  Abraham,  I  am  not  worthy,  but  deliver  me, 
he  strove  with  his  Maker  in  a  sense  far  different. 
Henceforward  Jacob's  name  must  be  new.  He  had 
in  the  second  strife  striven  with  God  prevailingly, 
and  this  prevailing  strife  with  God  involved  a  pre- 
vailing with  Esau  and  the  four  hundred  men  whom 
and  whose  affections  God  overruled.  God  *'  blessed 
him  there"  and  said,  *' Thy  name  shall  be  called 
Israel,  because  thou  hast  striven  with  God  and  men, 
and  hast  prevailed."  The  new  name  was  com- 
pounded of  two  words,  one  signifying  strife,  the 
other  signifying  God,  the  compound  importing 
a  struggle  to  which  the  Divine  Being  was  a 
party. 

Jacob  has  begun  to  perceive  the  meaning  of  the 
vision.  The  truth  reaches  him  that  the  Wrestler, 
was  no  other  than  the  Source  of  his  past  troubles, 
no  other  than  the  Source  of  the  blessing  which  he 
needs  for  the  future.  If  he  has  had  a  hold  at  the 
feet  of  Him  who  had  given  the  decisive  touch  at  the 


34  Visions  and  Narratives. 

hollow  of  the  thigh,  he  has  asked,  as  if  of  his  Maker, 
that  he  may  retain  this  hold,  "  I  will  not  let  Thee 
go  until  Thou  bless  me."  When  he  inquires  for  the 
name  of  the  *'  Man  "  of  the  vision,  this  is  only  to 
make  assurance  doubly  sure,  and  the  Wrestler  gives 
the  desired  reassurance  in  the  significant  question, 
Wherefore  is  it  that  thou  dost  ask  after  My  Namei? 
But  the  place  of  the  vision,  as  well  as  Jacob,  must 
receive  a  new  designation.  It  must  take  the  name 
Peniel  (presence  or  face  of  God),  because  after  the 
vision  Jacob  could  and  did  testify,  "  I  have  seen  God 
face  to  face  and  my  life  is  preserved."  His  life  had 
been  preserved  with  a  preservation  so  surpassing 
that  he  met  his  injured  brother  with  forgiveness  on 
the  part  of  the  latter,  and  with  more  than  safety  to 
himself.  He  in  whose  hands  are  all  human  hearts 
delivered  Israel  not  only  from  harm  and  the  appre- 
hension of  harm  from  his  brother,  but  from  even  the 
desire  to  inflict  harm,  in  the  soul  of  the  wronged 
Esau.  What  wonder  that  Jacob  should  provide 
that  the  place  and  its  name  should  from  age  to  age 
call  to  the  minds  of  the  future  occupants  of  the 
land  the  signal  events  which  the  locality  had  wit- 
nessed— God  striving  with  the  patriarch,  and  long 
striving  without  prevailing  in  the  strife — God  at 
length  reducing  the  patriarch  so  that  this  person 
began    a    new   kind   of  strife,    viz.,    the    strife   in 


God  Wrestling  and  Wrestled  With.  35 

which    the  striver   rejoices  in  having-  and  keeping 

a  hold   on  the  feet   of  him   with  whom  he  strives 

—  God    at  last    prevailed    with    and    pronouncing, 

Thou  hast  striven  with    God   and  men,    and   hast 
prevailed. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  SENSE  OF  RIGHT   AND   WRONG 
Genesis  XXXVII.,   XLII. 

The  brothers   of  Joseph  were  envious,  mah'gnant 

and  murderous.     Yet  when    one    of  their   number 

said,  *'  Let  not  our  hand  be  upon  him,  for  he  is  our 

brother  and  our  flesh,"   the   rest  were  moved.     A 

chord  within  them   answered  to  this  touch.     When 

disaster    came    upon    them,  conscience   proved    its 

existence    in  the    exclamations,    "We    are    verily 

guilty  concerning  our  brother  in  that  we  saw    the 

distress  of  his  soul  when  he  besought  us  ;  and  we 

would  not  hear  !     Therefore   is  this  distress  come 

upon  us.     Behold  his  blood   is  required.     God  hath 

found  out   our  iniquity."      Such  ideas  of  guilt  and 

penal  consequences  are  familiar  to  us.     But  what  is 

the  source  of  such  ideas  ?     Are  they  an  outcome  of 

revelation,  or  does  revelation  take  their  existence  for 

granted,  and  build  upon  them  the  structure  it  rears  ? 

Many  persons  do  not  care  to  enter  into  such  in- 

36 


The  Sense  of  Right  and  Wrong.  yj 

quiries,  but  to  others  they  seem  fundamental,  and,  in 
this  age  of  scepticism,   important  to  be  met. 

I.  The  words  "  paternal,"  "  maternal "  and  "  filial  " 
originally  denote  relations  merely — the  relation  of  a 
father,  of  a  mother,  of  a  son  ;  but  they  pass  into  a 
secondary  meaning  ;  they  import  a  conduct  becom- 
ing to  the  relation  of  a  father,  mother  or  son.  This 
passage  into  a  secondary  meaning  obtains  in  lan- 
guages otherwise  very  different,  as  if  men  however 
unlike  in  most  respects  concurred  in  the  feeling 
that  a  duty  grows  out  of  such  relations.  A  man 
cannot  be  a  father  or  a  son  without  incurring  obli- 
gations in  virtue  of  this  fact,  and  the  perception  of 
this  truth  is  so  general  that  it  affects  the  applica- 
tion of  words. 

In  like  manner  "  right,"  a  word  originally  signi- 
fying perpendicular  or  horizontal  straightness,  and 
*'  wrong,"  a  word  allied  to  "  wring,"  and  having  the 
idea  of  distortion  for  its  original  meaning — these 
words  and  their  synonyms  in  foreign  languages 
are  with  remarkable  unanimity  applied  to  things 
invisible,  the  one  to  moral  rectitude,  the  other  to 
moral  obliquity.  The  words  *'  beauty"  and  '*  ugli- 
ness "  are  used  in  a  similar  manner  in  the  languages 
of  mankind.  From  denoting  what  is  outward  and 
bodily,  they  come  to  mean  a  thing  not  to  be  seen 
by    the   outward   eye,  viz.,   a  quality    inward  and 


38  Vis  WHS  and  Narratives. 

spiritual.  If  it  is  plain  that  the  unanimity  exhib- 
ited in  the  speech  of  races  which  never  meet  each 
other  cannot  be  of  a  conventional  origin,  whence 
does  it  come  ?  The  same  question  may  be  asked 
with  relation  to  other  facts.  All  human  beings 
have  a  consciousness  of  freedom,  of  freedom  to  do 
or  leave  undone  an  act  to  which  they  are  tempted. 
And  they  have  a  sense  of  responsibility  or  con- 
sciousness of  qualification  to  be  called  to  account. 
When  told  a  tale,  they  feel  dissatisfied  if  the  story 
"  ends  badly  ;  "  and  by  ending  badly,  what  do  they 
mean } 

The  facts  tend  toward  the  belief  that  the  soul 
has  perceptions  which  are  not  dependent  on  the 
eye  strictly  so  called.  It  perceives  ugliness  in 
character  somewhat  as  the  outward  eye  is  sensible 
of  ugHness  in  faces  or  forms,  and  thus  it  is  that 
men  in  different  ages  and  countries  unite  in  using 
one  and  the  same  word  in  a  twofold  acceptation. 
Seldom  is  it  that  the  history  of  a  phrase  is  insignifi- 
cant. Human  beings  possess  in  virtue  of  the  con- 
stitution of  their  nature  an  internal  sense — com- 
parable to  the  external  sense  of  stench  or  fragrance 
— a  sense  which  could  hardly  exist  if  it  had  not 
been  communicated  by  the  creative  power  ;  any 
more  than  a  man  could  recognize  in  a  thing  the 
quality  of  sweetness  or  bitterness,  \i  the  man  were 


The  Sense  of  Right  and  IVrong-.  39 

without  a  palate.  A  perverted  taste  may  put 
bitter  for  sweet  or  sweet  for  bitter,  but  no  person 
is  to  be  found  who  does  not  perceive  a  character 
of  bitterness  or  the  contrary  as  resident  in  some 
things,  alike  in  the  physical  and  in  the  spiritual 
domain.  If  there  are  tribes  of  men  who  hold  that 
it  is  wrong  for  a  woman  to  survive  her  husband, 
and  right  that  she  should  immolate  herself  in 
honor  of  him,  this  fact  shows  that  these  tribes 
concur  with  the  sentiment  of  mankind  generally, 
viz.,  the  sentiment  that  a  quality  of  rectitude  or 
its  contrary  resides  in  human  actions.  It  shows 
also  that  they  have  a  sense  of  the  truth  that 
the  conjugal  relation  involves  a  duty  devolving 
upon  persons  who  are  parties  to  this  relation, 
although  it  exemplifies  the  undeniable  truth  that 
the  sentiment  may  express  itself  in  an  exaggerated 
way.  It  is  to  be  confessed  that  other  phenomena 
make  it  undeniable  that  such  moral  sentiments  are 
everywhere  counteracted  by  adverse  influences 
belonging  to  our  nature,  and  that  to  a  most  melan- 
choly extent.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  sense 
of  right  and  wrong  requires  to  be  educated,  in  order 
to  reach  an  elevated  condition.  It  is  in  this 
respect  like  the  reasoning  power,  a  power  inborn  in 
man  generally  and  absent  in  idiots  only.  Processes 
of  instruction  are  requisite   to  develop  and  fortify 


40  Visions  and  Narratives. 

both  the  moral  and  the  intellectual  faculties,  but 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  of  these  faculties 
could  be  fortified  or  evolved  if  it  had  not  existed 
previously.  Could  you  engender  conscience  in  an 
ox  ? 

If  the  above  representations  are  true,  they  are 
important.  Inasmuch  as  they  prove  that  men 
have  a  nature  which  makes  them  susceptible  of 
being  called  to  account,  they  render  it  probable, 
antecedently  to  revelation,  that  there  is  a  judgment 
to  come,  and  they  confirm  the  revelation  when  it 
arrives.  The  inborn  tendency  to  recognize  con- 
duct as  worthy  of  reward  or  punishment,  of  appro- 
bation or  disapprobation  is  that  which  makes  us 
capable  of  religion.  But  for  this  ivature,  we  could 
see  no  impropriety  in  predicating  righteousness  of  a 
machine  ;  we  should  not  feel  the  want  of  such  a 
word  as  righteousness. 

2.  There  are  Christians — strange  to  say — who 
controvert  the  main  position  of  this  chapter  on  Bib- 
lical grounds.  They  allege  that  the  Scriptures 
teach  that  men  are  by  nature  in  darkness.  In  this 
allegation  there  is  an  element  of  truth,  but  let  it 
be  remembered  that  there  is  scarcely  any  outward 
darkness  so  thick  that  it  is  equivalent  in  its  effects 
to  a  want  of  ej^es.  Where  total  darkness  exists,  no 
man   who  stumbles  can  be   punishable  or   blame- 


TJlc  Sense  of  Right  and  Wrojig.  41 

worthy  for  the  stumbling.  Su:h  is  the  case  in  the 
inward,  the  spiritual  sphere.  Otherwise,  how  could 
Christ  declare  "  If  ye  were  blind,  ye  should  have  no 
sin."  **  They  seeing,  see  not,  and  hearing,  hear 
not."  Devout  men  sometimes  allege  that  to  hold 
that  men  originally  possess  a  moral  sense  is  to 
dignify  human  nature,  and  that  the  Bible,  on  the 
contrary,  degrades  this  nature.  The  truth  is,  the 
Bible  often  dignifies  the  human  nature.  What  is 
the  tendency  of  the  utterance,  *'  Let  us  make  man 
in  our  image,  after  our  likeness,  and  let  them  have 
dominion  over  the  fowl  of  the  air  and  over  the 
cattle,"  unless  the  passage  means  that  human 
beings  were  to  be  qualified  for  dominion  over  other 
beings  by  the  possession  of  a  God-like  nature  } 
What  means  the  utterance,  "  Thou  hast  made  man 
a  little  lower  than  the  angels  "  ?  and  what  means 
the  exhortation,  *' Quit  you  like  men  "  .?  It  is  in 
dignifying  human  nature  on  one  of  its  sides  that 
the  Bible  degrades  it  in  another  of  its  aspects. 

It  is  in  attributing  to  men  faculties  which  the 
book  does  not  attribute  to  beasts,  faculties  less,  but 
only  less,  than  angelic,  that  the  Scriptures  bring 
down  the  self-justifying  spirit,  and  draw  from 
human  breasts  the  confession  of  guiltiness.  Jurists 
hold  that  idiocy  makes  a  person  incapable  of  com- 
mitting a  crime.     If  idiocy  is  pleaded  for  a  man- 


42  Visions  mid  Narratives. 

killer,  you  must  deny  the  truth  of  the  plea,  and  so 
doing  must  dignify  the  culprit,  before  you  can  bring 
him  to  the  gallows.  A  British  officer  known  to 
story  felt  that  a  principle  analogous  to  this 
appertained  to  the  moral  as  distinguished  from  the 
legal  sphere.  Moved  by  compunction  for  a  life  of 
sin,  he  exclaimed  on  seeing  a  dog  enter  a  room  in 
which  he  sat,  "  Would  that  I  were  that  animal  !  " 
The  man  believed  that  an  animal  had  no  sense  of 
right  or  wrong  and  no  consciousness  of  responsi- 
bility, was  in  this  respect  his  inferior,  and  therefore 
was  better  than  himself — better  and  deserving  to 
be  better  off. 

The  existence  of  a  natural  moral  faculty  underlies 
the  fact  that  Scripture  uses  moral  principles,  without 
first  revealing  those  principles.  An  example  of 
such  use — of  an  appeal  to  a  moral  principle  not  pre- 
ceded by  a  revelation  of  the  principle — occurs  in 
the  earliest  parts  of  the  Book  of  Genesis.  Think 
of  the  language  to  Cain,  ''What  hast  thou  done  } 
the  voice  of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth  unto  me 
from  the  ground  ;  and  now  art  thou  cursed  from 
the  earth,  which  hath  opened  her  mouth  to  receive 
thy  brother's  blood  from  thy  hand."  What  means 
this  iteration  of  the  word  brother }  It  assumes 
that  it  was  already  well  understood  that  to  shed 
the  blood  of  a  brother  was  something   peculiarly 


TJic  Sense  of  Rig  Jit  and  Wrong.  43 

atrocious.  Yet  this  moral  principle  had  not  been 
matter  of  revelation.  A  little  further  on  in  the 
Scriptural  narrative,  the  Divine  Voice  declares, 
"  At  the  hand  of  every  man's  brother  will  I  require 
the  life  of  man.  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by- 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,  for  in  the  image  of 
God  made  he  man."  I  do  not  dwell  upon  the  facts 
that  this  language  conflicts  with  the  opinion  that 
the  Divine  image  in  man  ceased  at  the  fall  of 
Adam,  that  this  remarkable  utterance  was  made 
many  centuries  after  that  fall,  and  that  the  substance 
of  the  apothegm  is  given  anew  in  times  as  late  as 
the  age  of  St.  James.*  Significant  as  these  facts  are, 
let  me  at  present  limit  myself  to  the  question — it 
m.ay  seem  too  simple  to  require  an  answer  and  yet 
it  ought  to  be  put — How  can  life  be  required  when 
it  has  been  destroyed  t  \'  is  plainly  implied  that 
the  life  of  a  slain  man  would  be  required  in  an 
equivalent,  that  is  to  say,  in  a  penalty.  If  a  truth 
nowhere  revealed  in  express  words,  namely,  that 
sin  must  be  paid  for,  is  here  assumed,  the  case  is 
the  same  throughout  the  Scriptures.  "  His  mis- 
chief shall  return  upon  his  own  head.  His  violent 
dealing  shall  come  down  upon  his  own  pate." 
"We  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done 


44  Visions  and  Narratives. 

in  his  body."  *'  He  that  doeth  wrong  shall  receive 
the  wrong  that  he  hath  done."  "  In  which  last 
place  the  English  Bible  introduces  the  word  *'  for  " 
without  warrant  from  the  original,  and  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  significance  of  the  passage.  Passages 
of  this  description  go  upon  the  supposition  that  ill- 
doing  and  suffering  belong  together,  and  that  this 
truth  is  evident  of  itself.  But  it  is  not  thus  evident 
unless  it  is  a  primary  truth,  that  is  to  say,  unless 
the  soul  has  a  sense  which  perceives  this  truth 
immediately,  without  waiting  to  be  apprised  of  it, 
or  to  learn  it  by  a  process  of  reasoning.  Moreover 
the  doctrine  of  a  moral  sense  underlies  the  Script- 
ure praises  of  God.  "  God  is  good  !  true  and 
righteous  are  His  ways  !  "  '*  True  and  righteous 
are  thy  ways,  O  King."  "Thou  only  art  holy." 
Such  language  abounds  throughout  the  Bible. 
Does  it  not  imply  that  there  is  a  standard  of  good- 
ness and  truth  with  which  the  conduct  of  God  may 
be  compared,  and  that  the  soul  has  a  sense  of  this 
standard,  somewhat  as  the  palate  has  a  sense  of 
taste,  and  the  nose  a  sense  of  fragrance  ?  Still 
further  the  existence  of  a  moral  sense  underlies  the 
doctrine  of  Scripture  respecting  the  heathen. t 
"  When  the  Gentiles  which  have  not  the  law  do 
by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these 

*  Col.  iii.  25.  t  Rom.  ii.  14,  15. 


The  Sense  of  Right  and  Wrong.  45 

having  not  the  law  are  a  law  unto  themselves, 
which  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their 
hearts,  their  consciences  excusing  or  else  accus- 
ing." It  is  here  plainly  taught  that  if  by  nature 
we  are  children  of  wrath — if  men  have  a  lower 
nature,  through  the  power  of  which  they  yield  to 
temptation,  they  have  also  a  higher  nature  ;  that 
this  is  the  case  even  with  the  Gentiles,  the 
heathen  ;  that  the  word  of  the  law  is  written  on 
even  pagan  hearts  ;  in  other  words,  that  there  is  a 
universal  conscience,  although  the  beings  who 
have  this  conscience  find  a  law  in  their  members 
that  warreth  against  the  law  of  their  mind.  It 
may  be  owing  to  the  universal  sense  of  the  repre- 
hensible and  its  contrary  that  the  public  sentiment 
is  sometimes  better  than  that  of  a  tempted  individ- 
ual, that  the  voice  of  even  a  heathen  community  is 
to  be  taken  into  consideration,  when  one  would  esti- 
mate his  duties  ;  that  an  apostle  when  writing  to 
Christians  who  lived  in  the  midst  of  paganism, 
could  say,  *  "  Whatsoever  things  are  honorable, 
.  .  .  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report,  think  on 
these  things."  Some  have  thought  it  strange  that 
what  is  of  good  report  in  the  world  should  be  com- 
mended to  the  thought  of  Christians.  But  consider 
when    a   prospective    hardship   does    not    tend    to 

*  rhilip  iv.  8. 


46  Visions  and  Narratives. 

deter,  when  the  hope  of  gain  does  not  attract, 
when  passion  does  not  infuriate,  the  voice  of  con- 
science is  most  able  to  make  itself  heard.  These 
deterring,  attracting  and  infuriating  influences  are 
often  absent  from  the  heart  of  the  public  in  junc- 
tures at  which  they  are  present  to  the  feelings  of  a 
member  of  the  community,  and  for  these  reasons 
an  apostle  could  recommend  to  a  disciple  perplexed 
between  "  the  law  of  his  mind  "  and  "  the  law  in 
his  members,"  that  he  should  consider  what  was 
**  honorable  and  of  good  report."  The  general 
sentiment  even  if  in  ordinary  cases  not  so  good  as 
a  man's  own  sentiment,  might  at  times  be  better, 
might  deserve  to  be  at  least  thought  upon,  and 
when  thought  upon,  might  come  to  be  echoed  in 
himself.     Do  not  despise  the  public  conscience. 

A  distinguished  sceptic  said  to  a  friend  whom  he 
had  invited  to  dinner,  "Try  this  mutton,  you  will 
find  it  very  virtuous."  What  he  meant  was  plain 
enough.  He  did  not  believe  in  any  virtue  distin- 
guishable from  utility,  or  tendency  to  produce 
certain  consequences.  He  held  that  merit  and 
demerit  were  but  names.  Does  not  the  unperverted 
human  soul  revolt  at  scepticism  of  this  description  } 
Did  this  philosopher  in  all  his  moods  fail  to  distin- 
guish between  merit  and  palatableness  }  Did  he 
always  confound  the   obligatory  with   the  politic  .? 


TJie  Sense  of  Right  and  Wrong.  47 

Would  he  deny  that  the  ring  of  truth  sounds  in  the 
quaint  aphorism,  "  Honesty  is  the  best  poHcy  ;  but 
if  a  person  deals  honestly  out  of  policy  only,  he  is 
not  an  honest  man  "  ?  Let  me  beware  of  the  con- 
jecture that  all  ideas  of  blamableness  and  approva- 
bleness  are  merely  factitious,  manufactured,  coined 
for  the  sake  of  their  consequences.  Their  ten- 
dency to  produce  desirable  consequences  is  undeni- 
able ;  but  this  tendency  can  hardly  produce  its 
best  effects,  if  the  ideas  are  held  to  be  mere  con- 
ventionalisms. Recognize  the  ideas  as  outcomes  of 
the  structure  of  your  minds,  the  spontaneous  issues 
of  the  work  of  the  Creator,  the  likeness  of  God  in 
man.  The  Divine  Being  has  not  left  himself  with- 
out witness  in  the  make  of  my  soul.  Show  me  the 
tribute  money.  Whose  image  and  superscription 
is  this  }  If  the  image  and  superscription  stamped 
on  a  coin  showed  in  what  authority  it  originated 
and  to  what  quarter  it  might  allowably  go  as 
revenue,  the  image  and  likeness  stamped  on  my 
soul  is  no  less  significant.  The  former  thing 
showed  that  the  coinage  was  merely  human,  im- 
ported no  religious  obligation  and  might  be 
rendered  where  the  powers  that  existed  demanded 
its  payment.  The  latter  thing,  the  sense  of  right 
and  wrong  imprinted  on  the  inner  man,  ''  the  law 
of  my  mind,"  binds  me  to  pay  unto  God  the  tribute 
of  adoration  and  well-doing. 


CHAPTER   V. 

ZION. 
I  Chron.  XI.  5-8  ;  XIV.  i  ;  XV.  1-3. 

ZiON  is  the  highest  of  the  hills,  or  rather  mountains, 
on  which  Jerusalem  is  built.  It  was  next  to  im- 
pregnable and  was  inaccessible  to  Israel  for  cent- 
uries subsequent  to  the  age  of  Moses.  Its  name 
occurs  so  frequently  in  the  utterances  of  Psalmists 
and  Prophets  as  to  make  it  important  to  attend 
to  the  history  of  the  place  and  to  the  aspects  and 
associations  in  which  the  name  appears. 

The  first  of  the  passages  indicated  at  the 
head  of  this  chapter  states  that  David  cap- 
tured the  mountain  and  built  for  himself  a  house 
thereon,  as  also  that  the  hill  came  accordingly  to 
be  known  as  "  the  City  of  David."  The  place  was 
largely  occupied  by  houses  ;  but  it  could  be  de- 
nominated a  city  without  regard  to  this  fact — any 
place  which  had  the  character  of  a  stronghold  being 
in  the  dialect  of  the   Bible,   from  the  time  of  Cain 


Zion.  49 

onward,  describablc  as  a  city.  Moreover,  the  name 
Zion  is  often  used  with  such  latitude  as  to  include 
the  whole  of  Jerusalem. 

For  centuries  after  the  time  of  David  the  de- 
scendants of  this  monarch  continued  to  occupy  the 
hill  which  in  the  stricter  acceptation  was  called 
Zion.  Zion  was  the  seat  of  the  palace  of  David's 
successors  for  some  twenty  generations.  There 
these  descendants  of  David  held  court.  On  Zion 
they  were  born,  and  there  they  gave  birth  to  their 
children.  This  use  of  the  hill  as  the  seat  of  the 
Davidic  dynasty  certainly  obtained  in  the  time  of 
the  Prophet  Micah.  Nevertheless  Micah  does  not 
describe  Zion  as  destined  to  be  the  birthplace  of 
that  great  scion  of  the  dynasty  whose  kingdom  was 
to  begin  in  the  land  of  Israel  and  therefrom  to  ex- 
tend. After  describing  Zion  as  subjected  again 
and  again  to  vicissitudes,  and  after  proceeding  to 
address  the  citizens  of  the  kingly  hill  as  needing  to 
put  themselves  on  the  defensive,  as  moving  in  troops, 
beleaguered  by  enemies  and  insulted  in  the  person 
of  their  judge  or  king,  the  prophet  brings  Bethlehem 
into  view — Bethlehem,  to  which  the  family  of  David 
had  belonged  before  any  of  its  members  had  risen 
to   a   royal    condition.     Micah, "^   while    addressing 

*  Micah  V.  I,  2,  revised  version,  which  is  the  translation  mostly  fol- 
lowed in  these  chapters. 


50  VisioJis  and  Nan-atives, 

Zion,  writes  :  **  Now  shalt  thou  gather  thyself  in 
troops  ...  He  hath  laid  siege  against  us.  They 
shall  smite  the  judge  of  Israel  with  a  rod  upon  the 
cheek.  But  thou  Bethlehem  Ephratah  which  art 
little  to  be  among  the  thousands  of  Judah,  out  of 
thee  shall  one  come  forth  unto  me  that  is  to  be 
ruler  in  Israel  ;  whose  goings  forth  are  from  of  old, 
from  everlasting."  The  fact  that  the  assurance  is 
given  to  the  family  of  David  as  having  its  homestead 
at  Bethlehem  and  not  to  the  family  as  having  its  pal- 
ace on  Zion,  is  significant.  And  the  significance  ap- 
peared when  hewhich"wasmadeof  the  seed  of  David 
according  to  the  flesh  "  was  born  in  comparative 
poverty.  The  condition  of  the  house  of  David  at 
the  time  of  the  birth  of  the  great  member  of  this 
house,  bore  such  a  comparison  with  the  condition 
which  the  family  had  enjoyed  in  the  time  of  the 
prophet  Micah,  as  a  country  town  inhabited  by  none 
but  subjects  bears  to  the  kingly  city — to  the  capi- 
tal of  the  monarchy  to  which  the  town  belongs. 
The  family  had  come  down  to  the  condition  of 
private  citizens.  Bethlehem  reached  a  dignity 
among  *'  the  thousands"  of  Israel,  which  it  had  not 
previously  possessed,  but  reached  this  dignity  be- 
cause a  manger  belonging  to  it  was  the  place 
where  the  infant  Messiah  was  laid,  and  because  of 
nothing  else. 


Zion.  5 1 

To  proceed  from  thoughts  which  arise  from  the 
comparison  of  Zion  with  Bethlehem,  think  of  the 
sacred  mountain  as  compared  with  Shiloh.  If  the 
first  of  the  historical  sentences  indicated  at  the 
head  of  this  chaptc^r  shows  how  Mount  Zion  came 
to  be  the  civil  capital  of  the  Israelitish  tribes, 
the  second  and  third  of  the  passages  show  how 
it  became  their  ecclesiastical  capital,  and  could 
be  called  by  Prophets  and  Psalmists,*  **  the  city  of 
our  solemnities,"  "the  city  of  God."  When  the  hill 
was  made  the  seat  of  the  Sanctuary,  it  became 
"  the  place  which  God  had  chosen  to  put  His  name 
there, "t  the  spot  where  worship  conducted  by  means 
of  sacrifices  should  be  offered,  the  central  spot 
whither  three  times  in  every  year  all  the  males  of 
Israel  must  go.  The  city  Shiloh  had  been  for  much 
of  the  interval  between  Joshua  and  David  the  spot 
thus  honored.  But  Shiloh  in  the  latter  part  of  this 
interval  lost  this  sacredness.  Hence,  when  prophets 
would  predict  such  loss  of  sacredness  on  the  par 
of  Zion  ;  when  they  represent  the  Israelites  of  their 
time  as  regarding  the  possession  of  Zion  in  the  light 
of  a  safeguard  to  them  in  the  midst  of  their  sins  ; 
when  seers  announce  that  the  place  upon  which 
the  people  reposed  their  trust  was  destined,  because 
of  the  people's  sins,  to  be  deserted  by  the  Divine 

*  Isaiah  xxxiii.  20;  Psalm  Ixxxvii.  3.  f  Deut.  xii.  5,  6. 


52 


Visions  and  Narratives. 


Being  and  to  become  a  ruin  ; — these  prophets  com- 
pare the  destiny  which  was  to  befall  the  sacred  hill 
to  the  allotment  which  had  befallen  Shiloh — "  Go 
ye  now  unto  my  place  which  was  in  Shiloh,  where 
I  caused  my  name  to  dwell  at  the  first  ;  and  see 
what  I  did  to  it  for  the  wickedness  of  my  people 
Israel.  And  now,  because  ye  have  done  all  these 
things,  saith  the  Lord,  and  I  spake  unto  you,  rising 
up  early  and  speaking,  but  ye  heard  not  ;  and  I 
called  you,  but  ye  answered  not,  therefore  will  I  do 
unto  this  house  which  is  called  by  my  name,  wherein 
ye  trust,  and  unto  the  place  which  I  gave  to  you 
and  to  your  fathers,  as  I  have  done  to  Shiloh."  "^ 

The  principle  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  such  Old 
Testament  utterances  is  that  the  Divine  Being  is 
always  the  same,  and  so  the  same  when  a  new 
cause  for  desecrating  a  sanctuary  occurs,  as  he  was 
when  an  old  cause  for  conduct  of  this  sort  took  place. 
Is  not  this  principle  the  thing  taught  in  the  remark- 
able name,  "I  am  that  I  am.?"  Would  not  this 
title  run,  if  exhibited  in  full,  "  I  am  at  all  times  that 
which  I  am  at  any  time — ever  faithful  to  my  ante- 
cedents— ever  sure  to  develop  myself  in  the  future 
as  I  have  developed  myself  in  the  past  }  "  If  the 
wickedness  of  Israel  made  its  Sanctuary  an  object 
of  disgust  to  God  in  one  age,  like  wickedness  of  the 

*Jer.  vii.  12-14. 


Zion.  53 

people  could  not  but  produce  a  like  result  in  another 
age,  on  the  supposition  that  God  was  to  be  consist- 
ent with  Himself.  This  is  the  moral  of  the  Old 
Testament  history.  This  was  the  moral  taught  by 
the  reproduction  of  the  ruin  of  Shiloh,  which  occurred 
when,  under  God,  the  Babylonians  in  one  generation 
and  the  Romans  in  another  laid  waste  the  hill  of 
Zion.  Jeremiah  pointed  this  moral  in  advance,  by 
the  comparison  of  Zion  to  Shiloh.  And  in  nothing 
do  the  prophets  more  abound,  than  in  the  represen- 
tation that  the  past  must  revive  in  the  future,  under 
the  administration  of  the  God  of  Israel.  They  with 
especial  frequency  represent  that  if  in  His  dealings 
with  His  people  He  vouchsafed  to  make  a  place  both 
His  and  theirs,  then  if  they  profaned  the  place  by 
their  abominations,  He  must  profane  it  in  another 
sense.  "  Behold,  I  will  profane  my  sanctuary,  the 
pride  of  your  power,  the  desire  of  your  eyes."* 

To  go  back  to  the  times  when  Zion  had  not  come 
to  be  eclipsed  by  Bethlehem  or  to  incur  the  lot 
which  Shiloh  had  suffered.  The  hill,  after  becoming 
the  site  of  the  Sanctuary,  is  often  represented  as 
having  become  a  home,  a  home  common  to  God 
and  to  Israel.  It  is  spoken  of  as  the  Divine  dwell- 
ing-place ;  for  example  where  it  is  said  :  f  "I  am 
the   Lord  your   God    dwelling  in  Zion."     In   other 

*Ezek.  xxiv.  21.  tjoel  iii.  17. 


54  Visions  and  Narratives. 

passages  the  sacred  mount  is  represented  as  the 
dwelling-place  of  God's  people  ;  for  example,  in  the 
utterance  "O  my  people  that  dvvellest  in  Zion."  "^ 
The  representation — God  dwelleth  in  Zion— co- 
exists with  a  less  figurative  statement — to  the  effect 
that  God  is  in  Heaven  and  His  people  upon  earth ; 
and  the  two  things,  the  more  figurative  and  the  less 
figurative  exhibition  of  the  dwelling-place  of  God, 
are  sometimes  to  be  found  within  the  same  Psalm — 
Psalm  xiv.,  for  instance,  where  God  is  spoken  of,  both 
as  looking  down  from  Heaven  upon  the  children 
of  men,  and  as  expected  to  give  the  salvation  of 
Israel  out  of  Zion.  The  conception  of  the  place  of 
the  Sanctuary  as  a  spot  where  the  Divine  Being 
domesticated  Himself  with  Israel,  and  where  Israel 
might  be  to  God  as  guests,  met  the  spiritual  wants 
of  an  age  and  race  which  needed  outward  signs  and 
symbols  ;  and  the  conception  was  authorized  and 
invited  in  the  words  addressed  to  Moses,  when  this 
law-giver  and  the  race  which  he  headed  were  yet 
on  the  journey  to  Canaan. t  *'  Let  them  make  me 
a  Sanctuary,  that  I  may  dwell  among  them  .  .  .  and 
there  I  will  meet  with  the  children  of  Israel." 
Psalmists  seize  on  this  idea,  the  idea  of  the  Sanc- 
tuary as  the  House  of  God,  wherein  themselves  and 
their  children  are  entertained.     Zion  is  the  spiritual 

*l3a.  X,  24.  t  Exod.  XXV.  8;  xxix.  43. 


Zion.  55 

home,  and  the  true  Israelite  is  the  inmate  of  this 
home.  The  worshipper  domesticates  himself  with 
the  Lord  of  the  Sacred  Hill,  and  from  this  Person, 
as  from  a  hospitable  host,  he  obtains  safe  keeping 
and  nourishment.^^  "  Surely  goodness  and  mercy 
shall  follow  me  all  the  days  of  my  life  :  and  I  will 
dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  forever."  "  Who  shall 
ascend  into  the  hill  of  the  Lord  .?  Or  who  shall 
stand  in  his  holy  place  .?  He  that  hath  clean 
hands  and  a  pure  heart  ;  who  hath  not  lifted 
up  his  soul  unto  vanity."  *'  One  thing  have  I 
asked  of  the  Lord,  that  will  I  seek  after  ;  That  I 
may  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  all  the  days  of 
my  life,  to  behold  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  and  to  in- 
quire in  His  temple.  For  in  the  days  of  trouble  He 
shall  keep  me  secretly  in  His  pavilion  :  in  the  covert 
of  His  tabernacle  shall  He  hide  me  ;  He  shall  lift  me 
up  upon  a  rock."  "  Thou  hast  been  a  refuge  for  me, 
a  strong  tower  from  the  enemy.  I  will  dwell  in  thy 
tabernacle  for  ever.  I  will  take  refuge  in  the  covert 
of  thy  wings."  In  these  passages  the  presence 
meant  is  hardly  personal.  On  the  part  of  the  peo- 
dle  it  is  a  presence  in  spirit,  and  on  the  part  of  God 
it  is  a  presence  in  power  and  efficacy. 

From  the  time  when  the  highest  of  the  mountains 
on  which   Jerusalem  was  built  became  identifiable 

*Ps.  xxiii.  6;  xxiv.  3-6;  xxvii.  4-6;  Ixi.  3,  4. 


^6  Visions  and  Narratives. 

with  the  worship  of  Jehovah  and  with  the  promises 
vouchsafed  to  the  seed  of  David,  the  Sacred  Hill, 
inasmuch  as  the  whole  of  its  new  quality  had  come 
from  God,  could  be  conceived  of  as  a  site  whereon 
the  system  of  religion  founded  by  the  Lord  was 
built,  as  a  spot  preferred  by  Him  to  the  ordinary 
dwellings  of  His  people,  and  as  destined  to  be 
ultimately  the  spiritual  birthplace  of  heathen 
nationalities  in  so  full  a  sense  that  these  tribes  would 
become  describable  as  born  in  Zion.  Such  is  the 
glowing  representation  made  in  a  Psalm  *  which 
looks  forward  to  a  census  of  mankind,  a  census  which 
Jehovah  is  to  take.  God  is  to  "  write  up  "  the  races 
of  men  and  the  principle  of  the  enrolment  is  to  be 
the  spiritual  nativity  of  this  and  that  of  the  races 
concerned.  *'  His  foundation  is  in  the  holy  moun- 
tains. The  Lord  loveth  the  gates  of  Zion  more  than 
all  the  dwellings  of  Jacob.  Glorious  things  are 
spoken  of  thee,  O  city  of  God.  I  will  make  mention 
of  Rahab  and  Babylon  as  among  them  that  know 
me.  Behold  Philistia  and  Tyre,  with  Ethiopia. 
This  one  was  born  there.  Yea,  of  Zion  it  shall  be 
said,  this  one  and  that  one  was  born  in  her  ;  and 
the  Most  High  Himself  shall  establish  her.  The 
Lord  shall  count,  when  He  writeth  up  the  peoples, 
this  one  was  born  there."     When  heathen  men  and 

*  Ps.  Ixxxvii. 


Zion.  57 

women  in  the  time  of  the  apostles  were  regenerated 
by  the  Gospel,  they  became,  by  their  second  birth, 
members  of  the  chosen  family — people  belonging  to 
Israel.  The  second  birth  might  be  figured  as  having 
taken  place  in  Zion,  with  imagery  not  much  bolder 
than  that  which  occurs  when  America  is  described 
as  the  birthplace  of  republicanism. 

This  87th  Psalm  is  one  of  the  Old  Testament 
passages  in  which — if  you  exchange  the  sign  for  the 
thing  signified,  the  figure  for  the  thing  figured — 
you  perceive  it  to  be  written  that  repentance  and 
remission  of  sins  were  to  be  preached  unto  all  nations, 
beginning  at  Jerusalem.  A  thing,  the  same  sub- 
stantially, was  taught  when  Mount  Zion  appeared 
in  prophecy  r,3  a  place  where  a  banquet  for  man- 
kind, an  unveiling  of  the  eyes  of  the  nations,  a  vic- 
tory over  death,  were  destined  to  occur.*  "  In  this 
mountain  shall  the  Lord  of  Hosts  make  unto  all 
peoples  a  feast  of  fat  things,  a  feast  of  wines  on  the 
lees,  of  fat  things  full  of  marrow,  of  wines  on  the 
lees  well  refined.  And  He  will  destroy  in  this 
mountain  the  face  of  the  covering  that  is  cast  over 
all  peoples,  and  the  veil  that  is  spread  over  all 
nations.  He  hath  swallowed  up  death."  A  thing, 
the  same  in  substance,  was  predicted  when  Zion  of 
Jerusalem  was  exhibited  as  the  place  whence  should 

*  Isa.  x.w.  6-8. 


58  Visions  and  Narratives. 

issue  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  whither,  as  to  a 
point  of  confluence,  all  races  should  come.*  "  In 
the  latter  days  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  the  moun- 
tain of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  established  in  the 
top  of  the  mountains,  and  it  shall  be  exalted  above 
the  hills,  and  peoples  shall  flow  unto  it.  And  many- 
nations  shall  go  and  say,  come  ye,  and  let  us  go  up 
to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  and  to  the  house  of  the 
God  of  Jacob  ;  and  He  will  teach  us  of  His  way, 
and  we  will  walk  in  His  paths  ;  for  out  of  Zion  shall 
go  forth  the  law,  and  the  w^ord  of  the  Lord  from 
Jerusalem.  And  He  shall  judge  between  many 
peoples,  and  shall  reprove  strong  nations  afar  off; 
and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares, 
and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks  ;  nation  shall 
not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they 
learn  war  any  more." 

In  the  New  Testament  the  earthly  Zion  is  super- 
seded. Neither  in  Jerusalem  nor  on  any  mountain 
elsewhere  are  men  to  worship  the  Father  with  that 
ritual  worship  of  which  Zion  in  Jerusalem  had  been 
the  appointed  place.  The  type  is  eclipsed  by  the 
antitype — Zion  has  .yielded  its  name  to  the  place 
where  Christ  has  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high — the  place  whither  Christians  have 
gone  in  spirit.     If  those  who  have  become  converts 

*  Micah  iv.  1-4. 


Zion.  59 

to  the  s}-stem  of  relii^ion  of  which  Rome  is  the  cap- 
ital, may  be  said  to  have  gone  to  Rome,  what  won- 
der that  all  those  who  have  acceded  to  the  system 
to  which  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  is  as  the  capital, 
are  addressed  as  persons  who  have  come  unto  Mount 
Zion.  The  Zion  on  high  has  become  the  metropolis 
of  the  Christian  commonwealth,  as  the  earthly  Zion 
had  been  the  capital  of  the  commonwealth  of  Israel.* 
"Ye  are  come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city 
of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to 
innumerable  hosts  of  angels."  The  new  capital  of 
the  dynasty  of  David  takes  the  name  of  the  older 
seat  of  the  sway  of  the  race.  Byzantium  did  anal- 
ogously when,  having  become  the  place  of  the  im- 
perial sceptre,  people  began  to  give  it  the  name  of 
Rome. 

To  return  to  the  Old  Testament  field.  The 
seat  of  that  system  of  institutions  which,  from  the 
time  of  David,  characterized  religion  ;  the  centre  to 
which,  three  times  in  every  year,  the  men  of  Israel 
converged  ;  the  spiritual  dwelling-place  or  home  of 
all  who  were  Israelites  indeed,  is  often  personified, 
although  in  the  midst  of  the  personification  the 
thing — the  place  meant — often  appears.  The  literal 
and  the  figurative  are  interchanged  in  a  manner  dis- 
allowed by  modern  rhetoric.     Zion  is  personified  as 

*  Ilcb.  xii.  22. 


6o  Visions  and  Narratives. 

a  mother — a  mother  exiled  from  her  home,  wander- 
ing to  and  fro,  bereaved  of  her  older  children,  and 
thinking  herself  forgotten  by  her  husband.  An  off- 
spring, however,  has  been  engendered  for  her. 
They  gather  to  her  in  haste  and  in  such  numbers 
that  her  devastated  land  is  too  narrow  for  the  new 
inhabitants.*  ZIon  said,  ''Jehovah  hath  forsaken 
me,  and  the  Lord  hath  forgotten  me.  Can  a  woman 
forget  her  sucking  child,  that  she  should  not  have 
compassion  on  the  son  of  her  womb  ?  Yea,  these 
may  forget,  yet  will  I  not  forget  thee.  Behold  I 
have  graven  thee  upon  the  palms  of  my  hands  ;  thy 
walls  are  continually  before  me.  Thy  children  make 
haste  ;  thy  destroyers  and  they  that  made  thee 
waste,  shall  go  forth  of  thee.  Lift  up  thine  eyes 
round  about,  and  behold  :  all  these  gather  them- 
selves together  and  come  to  thee.  As  I  live,  saith 
the  Lord,  thou  shalt  surely  clothe  thee  with  them 
all  as  with  an  ornament,  and  gird  thyself  with  them, 
like  a  bride.  For,  as  for  thy  waste  and  desolate 
places  and  thy  land  that  hath  been  destroyed, 
surely  now  thou  shalt  be  too  strait  for  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  they  that  swallowed  thee  up  shall  be  far 
away.  The  children  of  thy  bereavement  shall  yet 
say  in  thine  ears,  The  place  is  too  strait  for  me : 
give   place  to  me  that   I   may  dwell.     Then  shalt 

*Iiia.  xlix.  14-22. 


Zion.  6 1 

thou  say  in  thine  heart,  Who  hath  begotten  me 
these,  seeing-  I  have  been  bereaved  of  my  children, 
and  am  soHtary,  an  exile,  and  wandering  to  and  fro  ? 
and  who  hath  brought  up  these  ?  Behold,  I  was 
left  alone  ;  these,  where  were  they  ?  "  If  in  the 
NewTestament  two  mothers  appear,  viz.:  the  Jeru- 
salem that  now  is  and  is  in  bondage  with  her  chil- 
dren and  the  Jerusalem  above,  which  is  the  mother 
of  us  all,  the  imagery  differs  from  that  which  presents 
itself  to  view  in  Isaiah  xlix.,  where  Zion  is  the  only 
mother  mentioned,  and  the  former  of  the  two  fam- 
ilies of  children  to  which  this  mother  had  given 
birth  is  spoken  of  as  lost.  But  if  you  pass  from  the 
figure  to  the  thing  figured,  the  meaning  is  the  same 
in  both  cases.  The  idea  is  that  of  Jews  repudiating 
their  obligations,  and,  in  consequence,  suffering  re- 
pudiation— Gentiles  accepting  the  later  revelation, 
and  accepted  as  members  of  the  household  of  faith. 
The  natural  branches  of  a  good  olive  tree 
are  cut  off,  and  branches  of  a  wild  olive  tree 
are  grafted  in.  Children  by  adoption  supply  the 
place  of  such  as  had  been  children  by  descent  from 
Abraham. 

There  is  a  pesonification  of  another  kind.  The 
phrase  daughter  of  Zion  often  appears.  The 
connection  in  places  where  the  phrase  occurs  is 
enough   to   show  that  it  exhibits  the  Israelites  in 


62  Visions  a?id  Narratives. 

their  collective  capacity.  The  phrase  daughter  of 
Tyre  exhibits  the  nation  so  called  in  the  aspect  of 
a  population  to  which  the  soil  of  the  Tyrians  had 
given  birth,  and  the  case  is  of  the  same  kind  when 
the  Israelites  are  addressed  in  a  corresponding  man- 
ner. They  are  accosted  as  a  people,  a  people  affili- 
ated to  the  land  of  which  Zion  was  the  capital. 
Among  the  passages  where  Israel  receives  this  title, 
is  the  remarkable  place  :  "^  *'  Rejoice  greatly,  O 
daughter  of  Zion  ;  shout,  O  daughter  of  Jerusalem: 
Behold,  thy  King  cometh  unto  thee.  He  is  just  and 
having  salvation  ;  lowly  and  riding  upon  an  ass,  even 
upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass.  And  I  will  cut  off 
the  chariot  from  Ephraim  and  the  horse  from  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  battle-bow  shall  be  cut  off,  and  he 
shall  speak  peace  unto  the  nations  ;  and  his  domin- 
ion shall  be  from  sea  to  sea  and  from  the  river  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth."  Every  part  of  this  remarkable 
utterance  ought  to  be  compared  with  history.  The 
sentence  which  concludes  the  utterance  ought  to  be 
contemplated  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  the 
territory  of  Israel  was,  according  to  Moses,  to  ex- 
tend from  the  Mediterranean  Sea  to  the  River 
Euphrates.  With  evident  allusion  to  these  bound- 
aries (which  are  often  named  elliptically,  the  one  as 
the  Sea,  the  other  as  the  River),  the  territory  of  the 

*  Zech,  ix.  9,  lo. 


ZioJi.  ^i 

King  destined  to  come  to  the  daughter  of  Zion  is 
described  as  reaching  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
every  other  sea,  and  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  ex- 
tremities of  the  earth.  The  boundaries  of  the  old 
territory  are  to  become  the  Hnes  whcrefrom  the  new 
territory  stretches.  Such  extension  of  the  domin- 
ions of  a  dynasty  hardly  occurred  in  the  time  of 
Zechariah — hardly  occurred  in  any  ancient  age — 
except  by  means  of  war.  War  was  in  those  ages 
carried  on  by  the  chariot,  the  horse,  and  the  bow  of 
battle.  The  employment  of  these  instrumentalities 
for  warfare  was  to  be  cut  off  from  the  tribes  of  Israel, 
as  in  history  it  was  cut  off  from  them  by  Israel's 
ceasing  to  be  a  commonwealth,  and  v/ith  this  in- 
capacity for  war  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Zion 
there  was  to  co-exist  a  dislike  to  war  on  the  part 
of  the  King  to  come.  He  was  to  approach  Zion  of 
Jerusalem  seated  not  upon  an  animal  suitable  for 
purposes  of  war,  but  upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass. 
He  was  not  to  declare  war,  but  to  speak  peace  to 
the  nations.  That  Jesus  Christ  conformed  to  Zech- 
ariah's  anticipations  need  not  be  said.  When  a  mul- 
titude of  the  population  born  and  bred  on  the  Sacred 
Hill  or  its  territory  issued  from  Jerusalem,  took 
branches  of  palm  trees  and  proceeded  to  meet  the 
great  descendant  of  David  ;  when  the  multitude  of 
them  that  went  before  and  them  that  went  after  Christ, 


64  Visions  and  Narratives. 

shouted  ''  Hosanna  :  "^  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  ;  Blessed  is  the  kingdom 
that  cometh,  the  kingdom  of  our  father  David  ;  "  this 
multitude  or  many  of  the  number,  were  unconscious 
of  the  full  significance  of  the  transaction  in  which 
they  were  engaged  ;  viz.:  that  they  were  responding 
to  the  call  which  had  been  spoken  by  Zechariaht 
"  Rejoice  greatly,  O  daughter  of  Zion  ;  shout,  O 
daughter  of  Jerusalem."  These  things  understood 
not  the  disciples  at  the  first  ;  but  when  Jesus  was 
glorified,  then  remembered  they  that  these  things 
were  written  of  Him,  and  that  they  had  done  these 
things  unto  Him. 

It  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  multitude  which 
uttered  these  acclamations  was  but  a  small  minority 
of  the  whole  population  of  Zion,  to  the  fact  that  the 
period  during  which  Christ  had  visited,  or  was  to 
visit,  the  once  sacred  place,  was  well-nigh  ended, 
and  to  the  fact  that  the  destiny  which  the  conduct 
of  the  mass  of  the  people  of  the  place  had  called 
down  upon  themselves  was  scarce  forty  years  dis- 
tant, that  Jesus,  within  an  hour  after  the  acclama- 
tions, when  He  beheld  the  city,  wept  over  it  and 
said,  "If  thou  hadst  known  in  this  day,  even  thou, 
the  things  which  belong  unto  peace  !  The  days 
shall  come  upon  thee,  when  thine  enemies  shall  cast 

*  Mark  xi.  9,  10.  \  Zech.  ix.  9,  10. 


Zion.  65 

up  a  bank  about  tlicc,  cind  compass  thcc  round  and 
keep  thee  in   on  every  side,  and  shall  not  leave  in 
thee  one  stone  upon  another  ;  because  thouknewest 
not  the  time  of  thy  visitation."     In  the  time  of  its 
visitation  by  a  power  which  unconsciously  avenged 
Zion's   ignoring  its  visitation  by  the  Messiah,   the 
city  came   to  be   ploughed  as   a  field,   and  subse- 
quently to  be  reduced  for  whole  generations  to  the 
condition    of   a    ruin.     Armies    of  Rome     erected 
mounds,  beleaguered  the  city,  demolished  its  houses 
and  massacred   its  inhabitants,  some  two  score  of 
years  from  the  day  of  the  piteous  forebodings  uttered 
by  Jesus  Christ.     All  the  Divine  dealings  are  types, 
if  by  a  type  you  mean  an  expression  of  a  principle. 
God  is  at  one  time  what  He  was  at  another.     The 
desolation  of  Shiloh  foreshadowed  that  desolation 
of  Jerusalem  which  took  place  six  centuries  before 
the  Christian    era  ;   and  the  second    desolation   of 
this  privileged  place,  which  occurred  Anno  Domini 
70,  was  but  a  new  expression  of  the  principle  of  the 
earlier  devastation  of  the  capital  of  the  Holy  Land  : 
*'  You  only  have   1   known  of  all  the  families  of  the 
earth  :  therefore   I  will  visit  upon   you   all  your  in- 
iquities." "^ 

*  Amos  iii.  2. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

MIC  AT  AH,  THE   SON    OF   IMLAH. 
I  Kings  XXII.  1-37. 

The  account  of  the  ministry  of  Micaiah,  the  son  of 
Imlah,  is  helpful  to  the  study  of  the  prophets.  It 
brings  into  view  several  of  the  characteristics  of 
prophecy,  and  throws  some  light  upon  the  nature 
of  the  **  vision"  which  the  prophets  claimed. 
The  facts  of  the  account  are  as  follows  : 
.  Jehoshaphat,  of  Judah,  is  in  Samaria  as  a  guest 
of  Ahab,  King  of  Israel.  A  city  east  of  the  Jordan, 
Ramoth-gilead  by  name,  has  been  captured  by 
Syria,  and  is  now  possessed  by  the  latter  power. 
Ahab  proposes  to  undertake  an  expedition  for  the 
purpose  of  recovering  Ramoth-gilead  to  his  king- 
dom. He  invites  Jehoshaphat  to  join  in  his  enter- 
prise, and  by  way  of  recommending  the  undertaking 
to  his  guest,  invokes  counsel  from  the  '*  prophets" 
of  the  court.     One  of  these  prophets  is  especially 

zealous.     The  horn  is,  with  animals  which  possess 

66 


Mica? ah,  the  Son  of  Tinlah.  6^ 

a  horn,  the  seat  of  power  and  implement  of  offence. 
Hence  it  becomes  a  frequent  figure  of  speech  to 
import  the  idea  of  might.  But  the  "prophet" 
Zedekiah,  not  content  with  naming  the  thing, 
manufactures  its  Hke  in  iron.  Zedekiah  made  him 
horns  of  iron,  and  said  to  the  king  Ahab  :  "  With 
these  shalt  thou  push  the  Syrians  until  they  be 
consumed." 

Jehoshaphat  is  suspicious.  He  asks  that  he  may 
hear  a  prophet  who  has  not  been  of  the  company 
of  Zedekiah.  There  is  a  prophet  of  this  descrip- 
tion. This  man,  Micaiah  by  name,  is  sent  for. 
The  messengers,  creatures  of  Ahab,  while  Micaiah 
is  on  his  way,  inform  him  how  Ahab  wishes  to  be 
counselled.  There  is  a  way  of  exposing  wishes  or 
faults,  by  seeming  to  adopt  or  encourage  them. 
This  way  may  be  used  under  certain  circumstances 
and  for  a  brief  time,  even  when  the  thing  meant  is 
the  opposite  of  the  thing  said.  This  ironical  course 
was  taken  by  Micaiah  ;  but  so  soon  as  Ahab  had 
shown  himself  too  obtuse  to  perceive  the  iron}^  the 
prophet,  faithful  to  his  office,  passing  to  good 
earnest,  tells  of  a  vision  which  had  been  vouchsafed 
him.  "  I  saw  all  Israel  scattered  upon  the  moun- 
tains, as  sheep  that  have  no  shepherd  ;  and  the 
Lord  said.  These  have  no  master  ;  let  them 
return  every  man   to  his  house    in    peace."     The 


68  Visions  and  Narj'ativcs. 

king  understands,  and  perceiving  that  Micaiah  has 
by  his  parable  taught  that  the  projected  expedition 
will  terminate  in  death  to  himself  and  in  disband- 
ing to  his  army,  repeats  the  complaint  he  had 
before  uttered  :  *'  I  hate  him  because  he  speaketh 
not  good  concerning  me,  but  only  evil."  Where- 
upon the  prophet  gives  utterance  to  another  vision 
he  had  had  ;  a  vision  which  taught  as  by  a  parable 
under  what  promptings,  and  with  what  concur- 
rence on  the  part  of  the  Divine  Being,  Ahab's 
counsellors  had  acted,  and  how,  without  knowing 
the  fact,  they  were  enticing  the  monarch  to  his 
destruction.  "  I  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  his 
throne,  and  all  the  host  of  heaven  standing  on  his 
right  hand  and  on  his  left,  and  the  Lord  said, 
Who  shall  entice  Ahab  that  he  may  go  up  and 
fall  at  Ramoth-gilead  t  .  ,  .  and  there  came  forth 
a  spirit  and  said,  '  I  will  entice  him  ...  I  will  be  a 
lying  spirit  in  the  mouth  of  all  his  prophets.'  "  The 
Spirit  who  thus  ''came  forth  and  said,"  was  no 
doubt  the  same  as  in  the  Book  of  Job  is  called 
Satan.  The  moral  was  taught  when  the  prophet 
added,  "And  now  behold  !  The  Lord  hath  put  a 
lying  spirit  in  the  mouth  of  all  these  thy  pro- 
phets." 

To  pass  from  the  facts  to  some  comments  there- 
upon. 


MicaiaJi,  tJic  Son  of  Lnlah.  6g 

In  a  manner  visible  to  the  ordinary  eye,  Israel 
had  not  been  "  scattered  upon  the  mountains  as 
sheep  that  have  no  shepherd."  The  scene  had 
been  intuitionally  perceived,  and  was,  as  it  was 
understood  to  be,  of  the  nature  of  a  parallel,  rather 
mystical  than  "realistic."  The  like  is  true  of  the 
second  seeing  Micaiah  tells  of,  the  sight  and  hear- 
ing of  the  scene  laid  and  the  speeches  made  in 
heaven.  It  is  denied^  in  express  negations  or  in 
significant  questions  to  be  found  again  and  again  in 
Scripture,  that  God  consults  or  advises  with  other 
beings.  The  scene  or  speeches  had  not  been  visi- 
ble or  audible  to  Micaiah's  outward  organs  of  sight 
or  hearing.  They  had  not  occurred  except  to  the 
inspired  mind  of  Micaiah.  A  prophet  owing  to 
the  fact  that  he  claimed  and  was  believed  to  be 
divinely  gifted  with  extraordinary  power  of  mental 
sight,  took,  in  common  with  the  class  to  which  he 
belonged,  that  singular  title,  "the  seer."  The 
import  of  the  representation  made  by  Micaiah, 
though  not  misunderstood,  was  contemned.  When 
it  was  vindicated  by  the  event,  men  came  to  know 
that  the  influence  which  had  inspired  Ahab's 
prophets  was  an  inspiration  from  the  spirit  of  evil, 
and  that  the  effect  of  the  influence  comported  with 
the  divine  plans.     Micaiah  was  thereby  accredited 

*Job  xxi.  22  ;  Isa.  xl.  13,  14, 


70  Visions  and  Narratives. 

for  other  teachings  which  he  might  learn  from 
*'  vision." 

This  was  the  course  of  things  for  which  Moses  "^ 
had  provided.  The  prophet  was  to  predict  some- 
thing for  the  nearer  future,  and  if  such  a  prediction 
should  be  verified  by  the  event,  then,  and  not  other- 
wise, his  statements  regarding  the  more  distant 
future  and  his  teachings  of  a  doctrinal  kind  were  to 
be  reverenced  as  authoritative. 

As  a  people  advances  in  cultivation,  figures  of 
speech  become  less  common.  Multitudes  become 
capable  of  comprehending  abstract  ideas  without 
being  assisted  by  analogies  ;  and  figures,  which  are 
nothing  but  analogues,  become  unnecessary.  When 
used,  they  sometimes  subject  a  speaker  to  con- 
tempt, as  a  mere  rhetorician.  But  utterances  of 
North  American  Indians  bear  witness  to  the  fact 
that  figures  oi  speech  are  no  invention  of  rhetoric. 
In  the  rude  ages  in  which  the  prophets  of  the  Bible 
spoke  and  wrote,  symbols  addressed  to  the  eye,  as 
well  as  metaphors  addressed  to  the  ear,  were  useful, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  impression  scarcely  less  than 
indispensable.  Counterfeits  copy  realities.  Be- 
cause the  counterfeit  prophet  Zedekiah  was  willing 
to  do  what  real  prophets  did,  he  made  for  himself 
horns  of  iron.     Ahijah,  the  Shilonite,  had  done  the 

*  Deut,  xviii.  21,  22, 


Micaiah^  the  Son  of  I  ml  ah.  yi 

like.  He  had  rent  his  garments  into  twelve  pieces, 
and  given  Jeroboam  ten  of  the  fragments,  by  way 
of  signifying  to  the  sight,  the  assurance  which  he 
gave  to  the  ear,  of  the  man  who  was  to  become  the 
king  of  ten-twelfths  of  the  empire  of  David.  In  a 
more  cultivated  age  traces  of  the  custom  remained  ; 
for  example,  in  the  case  of  Agabus  :  "^  "  There 
came  down  from  Judaea  a  certain  prophet  named 
Agabus  ;  and  coming  to  us,  and  taking  Paul's 
girdle,  he  bound  his  own  feet  and  hands,  and  said, 
*  Thus  saith  the  Holy  Ghost.  So  shall  the  Jews  at 
Jerusalem  bind  the  man  that  owneth  this  girdle, 
and  shall  deliver  him  into  the  hands  of  the  Gen- 
tiles.' " 

With  regard  to  the  first  utterance  Micaiah  made 
before  Ahab,  such  irony  as  the  seer  used  therein 
should  be  recognized  elsewhere  in  the  prophets. - 
What  but  irony  is  present  when  Israel  is  reproached 
in  the  language,  t  "  Come  to  Bethel  and  transgress. 
At  Gilgal  multiply  transgression  ;  for  this  liketh 
you,  ye  children  of  Israel  ;  "  or  when  Isaiah  says  to 
the  people,  X  "  Hear  ye,  indeed,  but  understand 
not,  and  see  ye,  indeed,  but  perceive  not  ;  "  or 
when  the  same  prophet  is  told,  *'  Make  the  heart 
of  this  people  fat,  and  make  their  ears  heavy,  lest 
they  hear  with  their  ears,  and  understand  with 
*  Acts  xxi.  lo,  II.  t  Amos  iv.  4,  5.  %  Isa.  vi.  9,  lo. 


72  Visions  and  Narratives. 

their  heart,  and  convert  and  be  healed."  The 
same  mode  of  speaking  is  used  occasionally  by  the 
Saviour.  "  The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses' 
seat.  All,  therefore,  whatsoever  they  command 
you,  that  observe  and  do,  but  do  ye  not  according 
to  their  works,  for  they  say  and  do  not."  ^  It  could 
be  only  for  the  purpose  of  giving  point  to  the 
sarcasm,  "  They  say  and  do  not,"  that  observance 
of  every  bidding  of  these  religious  teachers  is  re- 
quired, since  on  other  occasions,  for  instance  in  the 
matter  of  the  Corban,  \  Christ  represented  the 
teaching  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  as  immoral, 
and  making  void  the  Word  of  God  by  their  tradi- 
tion. The  antithesis  between  the  Pharisaic  saying 
and  the  Pharisaic  doing  is  among  the  principal 
things  condemned  in  the  discourse  introduced  by 
the  precept,  "  Whatsoever  they  command  you,  that 
observe  and  do." 

That  it  was  by  an  intuition  that  the  prophets 
were  believed  to  perceive  the  truth  to  which 
they  were  to  give  utterance,  has  already  been 
said.  This  faith  was  sanctioned  by  Obadiah  and 
Isaiah,  when  these  prophets  severally  entitled 
their  books,  "  The  Vision  of  Obadiah,"  '*  The  Vision 
of  Isaiah  which  he  saw."  If  you  inquire  whether 
the  seers  took  steps  whereby  they  invited  commu- 

*  Matt,  xxiii.  2,  3.  f  Mark  vii.  9-13. 


Micaiah,  the  Scm  of  IinlaJi.  73 

nications  from  on  high,  or  whether  these  communi- 
cations reached  them  without  being  sought,  your 
question  does  not  admit  of  an  answer  applicable  to 
all  the  cases.  In  the  case  of  Micaiah  there  is  no 
intimation  that  the  things  which  had  been  ''  seen  " 
by  him  had  been  made  present  to  his  intuition  in 
consequence  of  a  seeking  of  his  own.  Different 
were  the  cases  of  Elisha  and  Habakkuk.  The 
former,  when  consulted  by  his  king,  sought  the 
help  of  music  to  bring  his  soul  into  a  condition  of 
receptivity."^  "Bring  me  a  minstrel;  and  it  came 
to  pass  when  the  minstrel  played,  that  the  hand  of 
the  Lord  came  upon  him,  and  he  said,  Thus  saith 
the  Lord."  Habakkuk  t  contemplates  a  Chaldean 
potentate  as  invading  and  ravaging  Israel.  This 
invasion  scandalizes  the  mind  of  the  prophet,  be- 
cause, ill-deserving  as  the  Israelites  are,  the  Chal- 
deans are  no  better,  but  are  even  worse.  The 
prophet  complains  of  his  ignorance.  By  and  by  he- 
learns  the  destiny  of  the  wicked  that  swalloweth 
up  the  man  who  is  more  righteous  than  he  ;  of  the 
haughty  man  who  enlargeth  his  desire  as  hell,  who 
cannot  be  satisfied,  but  gathereth  unto  him  all  peo- 
ples, who,  because  he  has  despoiled  nations,  shall 
be  himself  despoiled  for  the  violence  he  has  done. 
Habakkuk  is  to  write  this  destiny  upon  tablets,  and 

*  II  Kings  iii.  15.  f  Hab.  i.  r,  2;  ii.  8. 


74  Visions  and  Narratives, 

make  the  writing  so  large  and  legible  that  no  per- 
son shall  fail  to  decipher  it.  But  no  more  than  a 
deciphering  can  be  expected  at  first.  The  inscrip- 
tion is  to  be  like  a  modern  catechism,  printed  in 
bold  type,  and  intended  to  be  read  and  remembered 
from  the  first,  but  hardly  expected  to  speak  its 
sense  until  maturity  of  age  has  arrived.  The 
thing  seen  by  the  prophet  will  have  to  be  waited 
for  ;  the  intuition  bides  its  time,  will  not  be  behind 
its  time,  and  will  take  significance  for  the  reader 
when  this  time  (the  time  for  fulfilment)  shall  have 
arrived,  and  not  before.  This  period  occurred  when 
the  ravagers  of  Israel  became  a  people  ravaged, 
when  the  scourge  sent  by  God  became  a  person 
scourged,  when  Belshazzar,  king  of  the  Chaldeans, 
was  slain,  his  dynasty  destroyed  and  his  kingdom 
given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians.  The  vision  then 
took  its  meaning.  In  the  time  appointed  to  it,  it 
spoke.  And,  to  reach  the  point  which  is  especially 
to  my  purpose,  disentanglement  from  the  prophet's 
mental  difficulties,  or  capacity  to  administer  hope 
to  his  hearers,  did  not  come  ;  a  vision  did  not 
arrive,  even  in  an  enigmatical  form,  until  he 
ascended  to  a  higher  spiritual  position  ;  until  the 
inquirer,  in  order  to  descry  the  dawn  of  day, 
climbed,  as  it  were,  to  an  observatory,  and  put 
himself  upon  the  look-out.     Then  first  he  perceived 


MicaiaJi,  the  Son  of  Imlah.  75 

how  his  complaint  was  to  be  met  :  "  I  will  stand 
upon  my  watch,  and  set  me  upon  the  tower,  and 
will  look  forth  to  see  what  he  will  speak  with  me, 
and  what  I  shall  answer  concerning  my  complaint. 
And  the  Lord  answered  me  and  said.  Write  the 
vision,  and  make  it  plain  upon  tablets,  that  he 
may  run  that  readcth  it,  for  the  vision  is  yet 
for  the  appointed  time,  and  it  hasteth  toward 
the  end,  and  shall  not  lie  ;  though  it  tarry,  wait 
for  it  ;  because  it  will  surely  come,  it  will  not 
delay." 

The  feet  of  Asaph  the  seer  had  well-nigh  slipped; 
he  had  been  in  danger  of  falling  from  his  faith  in 
Providence,  owing  to  his  having  seen  the  ungodly 
in  prosperity  and  the  godly  in  adversity.  But  he 
did  not  speak  thus — he  did  not  give  utterance  to 
his  misgivings — before  he  received  the  spiritual  in- 
sight which  he  could  and  did  express  in  a  psalm  ; 
the  psalm  which  rising  above  the  creed  recognized 
in  his  age,  does  not  end  without  the  confident 
ebullition,  "Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel, 
and  afterward  receive  me  to  glory."  The  insight 
which  inspired  the  seventy-third  psalm  did  not 
come  until  the  seer  had  ''gone  into  the  sanctuary 
of  God."  Is  any  interpretation  of  these  remarkable 
words  more  probable  than  that  sense  which  does 
not  need  an  interpreter  }     In  order  to  still  his  mis- 


^6  Visions  and  Narratives. 

givings,  to  encourage  his  spirit  to  rise  to  a  higher 
level,  to  woo  the  Spirit  of  God  and  obtain  for  him- 
self the  spiritual  vision  which  his  sacred  ode  ex- 
presses, this  psalmist  had  betaken  himself  to  the 
temple,  and  there,  in  the  midst  of  its  sublime  associ- 
ations— at  night  and  in  solitude  perhaps — had 
received  the  power  from  on  high,  which  enabled 
him  to  write  with  relation  to  his  previous  doubts,^ 
**  So  brutish  was  I  and  ignorant  :  I  was  as  a  beast 
hefore  Thee."  *'  Nevertheless  I  am  continually  with 
thee :  Thou  hast  holden  my  right  hand.  Thou 
shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel,  and  afterward 
receive  me  to  glory.  Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but 
Thee  }  And  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire 
beside  Thee." 

**  Prophecy,"  in  modern  speech,  hardly  occurs 
except  as  expressive  of  prediction  ;  of  a  revelation 
respecting  the  future.  How  far  this  restriction  of 
the  word  to  utterances  respecting  time  not  yet 
arrived  is  distant  from,  the  Hebrew  mode  of  speak- 
ing, appears  in  the  insulting  address  of  Jews  to  our 
Lord,  "  Prophesy  unto  us,  thou  Christ.  Who  is  he 
that  smote  thee  }  "  The  vision  of  Micaiah  which 
exhibited  a  scene  as  if  occurring  in  heaven,  explained 
time  present,  viz.,  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Ahab's 
counsellors  were  counselling  him  to  his  destruction. 

*  Ps,  Ixxiii.  22-2?. 


Micaiah,  the  Son  of  Imlah.  jy 

Similar  as  to  time  is  the  case  in  some  other  pro- 
phecies. A  vision  mentioned  by  Ezekiel  *  tells  of 
things  which  were  passing  contemporaneously  with 
the  vision,  although  it  differs  from  the  representa- 
tion made  by  Micaiah  in  this  respect,  that  the 
vision  obtained  by  Ezekiel  tells  of  things  disallowed 
by  God  which  were  taking  place  in  an  earthly 
country  foreign  to  the  country  where  Ezekiel  at  the 
time  resided  ;  whereas  the  vision  obtained  by 
Micaiah  told  of  things  divinely  suffered  and  allowed, 
which  at  the  time  were  taking  place  in  the  world 
of  spirits.  Sometimes  prophecy  relates  to  time 
past,  as  when  the  design  leads  the  writer  to  turn 
up  to  view  the  hidden  side  of  things  ;  to  exhibit 
the  divine  aspect  of  facts  already  known  in  their 
more  profane  aspect.  This  is  certainly  the  case  in 
the  Book  of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John  the  Divine,  t 
where  the  woman  giving  birth  can  be  no  other  than 
the  Israelitish  people,  the  man-child  no  other  than 
the  Christ,  the  dragon  no  other  than  the  power  of 
darkness,  and  the  taking  up  into  heaven  nothing 
else  than  our  Lord's  ascension.  In  a  merely  secu- 
lar aspect  the  persons  meant  had  already  come  to 
belong  to  history. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  words   Micaiah   sub- 
joined to  the   parable  which  he  had   "  seen,"   (the 

*  Eze.v.  viii.   i-8.  f  Rev.  xii.  1-7. 


78  Visions  and  Narratives. 

words  **  Now,  therefore,  behold,  the  Lord  hath  put 
a  lying  spirit  in  the  mouth  of  all  these  thy  prophets, 
and  the  Lord  hath  spoken  evil  concerning  thee,") 
Micaiah  draws  the  inference  which  his  vision  had 
involved,  and  thus  interprets  the  import  of  the 
vision.  In  some  other  cases  the  imagery  of  an  in- 
tuition is  reproduced  without  mention  of  its  mean- 
ing, like  Christ's  curse  of  the  barren  fig-tree.* 

In  most  of  these  cases  the  meaning  was  known 
to  the  writer,  but  the  last  vision  given  in  the  Book 
of  Daniel  is  not  only  without  an  explanation,  but  is 
followed  by  a  distinct  acknowledgment  that  the 
writer  needed  an  explanation  for  himself,  and  that 
when  he  asked  for  such  relief  to  his  mind,  he  was 
told  not  only  that  the  thing  meant  was  intended 
for  times  other  than  those  then  present,  but  that 
until  the  period  called  "the  time  of  the  end" 
arrived,  the  record  of  the  vision  was  to  be  like  an 
instrument  of  writing  carefully  enveloped  and 
secured  from  inspection  by  wax  and  signet  ;  so  far 
like  an  instrument  of  writing  thus  inclosed,  that  the 
record  would  fail  to  disclose  its  import  either  to  the 
recorder  or  to  other  men,  until  the  generation  for 
whom  it  had  been  vouchsafed  should  have  come. 
If  modern  men  fail  to  understand  the  closing  chap- 
ters of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  the  same  was  the  case 

*  Mark  xi.  12-14. 


Micaiah,  the  Son  of  Imlah.  79 

with  Daniel  himself.  Habakkuk  may  have  been 
able  to  expound  his  vision  as  early  as  the  time 
when  the  vision  was  given,  but  to  Daniel  was 
granted  neither  the  ability  to  expound  nor  the 
ability  to  understand.  "^  **  I  heard  but  I  understood 
not  ;  then  said  I,  O  my  Lord,  what  shall  be  the 
issue  of  these  things  }  And  He  said,  Go  thy  way, 
Daniel,  for  the  words  are  shut  up  and  sealed  till 
the  time  of  the  end." 

*  Dan.  xii,  8,  9. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE  COVENANT  WITH   DAVID. 
11  Sam.  VII.  12-17. 

The  *Mast  words  of  David"  exhibit  an  ideal. 
They  describe  a  conception  of  what  the  head 
of  a  people  should  be  and  of  the  benign  influence 
upon  others  which  a  ruler  answering  the  descrip- 
tion would  exercise.  The  words  proceed  to  an 
acknowledgment  that  the  house  of  the  speaker, 
head  and  members,  failed  at  the  time  then  present 
to  realize  the  ideal.  The  words  proceed  further  to 
tell  of  a  covenant,  a  covenant  which  the  dying 
man  could  describe  as  the  thing  to  which  the 
desires  of  his  soul  converged,  although  this  cove- 
nant was  at  the  time  like  a  plant  stunted  in  growth 
or  only  in  its  germinal  stage. 

**  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  spake  by  me. 

"  And  His  word  was  upon  my  tongue. 

"  The  God  of  Israel  said. 


TJic  Covenant  ivitJi  David.  8 1 

*'  The  Rock  of  Israel  spake  to  me. 

"  One  that  ruleth  over  men  righteously. 

"  That  ruleth  in  the  fear  of  God  ! 

**  He  shall  be  as  the  light  of  the  morning  when 
the  sun  riseth, 

**  A  morning  without  clouds, 

"When  the  tender  grass  springeth  out  of  the 
earth, 

"  Throug^h  clear  shinincf  after  rain. 

"  Verily  my  house  is  not  so  with  God. 

"  Yet  he  hath  made  with  me  an  everlasting  cove- 
nant, 

'*  Ordered  in  all  things  and  sure. 

"  For  it  is  all  my  salvation  and  all  my  desire, 

''Although  hemaketh  it  not  to  grow."^ 

The  questions.  What  was  the  tenor  of  the  cove- 
nant which  had  been  made  with  David  }  What 
notices  of  this  covenant  are  to  be  found  in  the 
prophets  who  lived  in  ages  subsequent  to  that  of 
this  monarch  .•*  What  expectations  from  this  cove- 
nant for  the  two  periods  of  which  most  of  these 
writers  speak  (the  earlier  and  the  latter  days)  do 
the  sacred  seers  entertain  }  What  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  New  Testament  with  respect  to  the  hopes 
which  the  prophets  cherished  and  expressed  ? — 
these  are  the  questions  to  be  now  met. 

*II  Sam.  xxiii,  2-5,   revised  version. 


82  Visions  and  Narratives, 

I.  The  answer  to  the  question  respecting  the 
tenor  of  the  covenant  which  David  when  about  to 
die  prized  so  highly,  may  be  found  in  the  historical 
passage  indicated  at  the  head  of  this  chapter  ;  a 
passage  repeated  in  substance  at  I  Chronicles  xvii. 
1-15.     The  case  may  be  stated  as  follows  : 

The  divine  Law-giver  had  declared  that  when 
Israel  should  have  come  into  the  possession  of 
Canaan,  there  should  be  a  place  chosen  by  the 
Law-giver  Himself,  where  and  where  alone  the  sacri- 
fices of  the  law  should  be  offered.  Jerusalem  had 
in  the  time  of  David  been  appointed  as  this  place. 
The  sanctuary  had  accordingly  been  transferred 
thither.  But  the  sanctuary  of  the  time  was  a  tent, 
a  movable  tabernacle.  Ought  the  sanctuary  to  con- 
tinue to  consist  of  a  movable  tent  now  that  the  place 
of  the  sanctuary  had  been  made  permanent.?  To 
David  it  seemed  incongruous,  after  he  had  erected  for 
himself  a  stationary  palace,  that  the  symbolical  resi- 
dence of  his  God  should  be  a  structure  less  stable. 
The  monarch  said  to  the  Prophet  Nathan,  '*  Behold, 
I  dwell  in  a  house  of  cedar,  and  the  ark  of  the  cove- 
nant of  the  Lord  dwelleth  between  curtains." 
Touching  the  inquiry  implied  in  this  speech,  Nathan 
had  no  commandment  of  the  Lord.  He  gave 
advice  with  such  authority  as  was  to  be  respected, 
but  was  not  final.     In  the  night  which  followed,  the 


The  Covenant  with  David.  83 

word  of  God  came  to  Nathan,  and  it  was  to  the 
effect  that  David  had  done  well  in  cherishin^^  the 
desire  which  had  been  in  his  heart,  but  that  the 
gratification  of  the  desire  was  not  to  be  allowed 
him.  An  honor  higher  than  that  which  the  mon- 
arch had  sought  was  at  the  same  time  promised  ; 
the  honor  of  becoming  the  founder  of  a  dynasty 
which  would  be  of  everlasting  duration.  This  cove- 
nant was  made  in  phrases  in  which  the  word 
*'seed"  conveys  the  principal  idea.  "Seed"  ex- 
presses the  notion  of  a  posterity  rather  than  the 
notion  of  a  single  descendant.  The  covenant  was  to 
be  fulfilled  with  regard  to  the  building  of  a  temple, 
by  one  and  another  of  the  individuals  of  the  seed  ; 
in  one  generation  by  Solomon  and  in  another  by 
Zerubbabel.  With  regard  to  other  particulars,  the 
promise  might  be  forfeited  by  descendants  of  the 
forefather  in  age  after  age,  but  could  not  fail  for 
one  and  all  of  these  descendants.  The  race  of 
David  could  not  be  set  aside  as  the  race  of  Saul  had 
been.  According  to  the  covenant  one  or  other 
of  the  members  of  the  race  of  David  must  succeed 
this  monarch  in  the  headship  over  Israel  which  had 
been  given  to  the  family.  If  these  statements  are 
correct,  the  phrases  of  the  promise,  in  order  to  be 
true  to  the  facts,  ought  to  be  translated  as  follows  : 
**  When  thy  days  be  fulfilled,  and  thou  shalt  sleep 


84  Visions  and  Narratives, 

with  thy  fathers,  I  will  set  up  thy  seed  after  thee, 
which  shall  proceed  out  of  thy  bowels.  And  I  will 
establish  its  kingdom.  It  shall  build  an  house  for 
my  name  ;  and  I  will  establish  the  throne  of  its 
kingdom  forever.  I  will  be  its  father  and  it  shall 
be  my  son.  If  it  commit  iniquity,  I  will  chastise  it 
with  the  rod  of  men,  even  with  the  stripes  of  the 
children  of  men — but  my  mercy  shall  not  depart 
from  it,  as  I  took  it  from  Saul,  whom  I  put  away 
before  thee.  And  thy  house  and  thy  kingdom  shall 
be  made  sure  forever.  According  to  all  these 
words  and  according  to  all  this  vision,  so  did 
Nathan  speak   unto   David." 

The  doctrine  of  the  Psalter  construes  the  promise. 
Forfeitures  of  the  covenant  might  occur,  but  the  thing 
covenanted  could  not  but  arrive.  David,  in  the  per- 
son of  one  or  other  of  his  descendants,  must  reign 
from  river  to  river  and  from  sea  to  sea.  If  the  moon 
in  the  heavens  bears  witness  in  its  disappearances  and 
renewed  appearances  to  the  dependableness  of  its 
Maker,  so  will  the  things  covenanted  to  the  seed  of 
David  bear  witness  to  the  dependableness  of  the 
Maker  of  this  covenant*  "  Thou  spakest  in  vision 
to  thy  saints.  And  saidst,  I  have  laid  help  upon 
one  that  is  mighty  ;  I  have  exalted  one  chosen  out 
of  the   people.     I    have  found   David   my  servant. 

*  Ps.  Ixxxix.  19,  20,  27-37, 


TJie  Covenant  ivitJi  David.  85 

With  my  holy  oil  have  I  anointed  him.  I  will 
make  him  my  first-born,  high  over  the  kings  of  the 
earth.  My  mercy  will  I  keep  for  him  for  evermore. 
And  my  covenant  shall  stand  fast  with  him,  and 
his  seed  will  I  make  to  endure  forever,  and  his 
throne  as  the  days  of  heaven.  If  his  children  for- 
sake my  law,  and  walk  not  in  my  judgments  :  if 
they  break  my  statutes,  and  keep  not  my  command- 
ments ;  then  will  I  visit  their  transgression  with 
the  rod,  and  their  iniquity  with  stripes.  But  my 
mercy  will  I  not  utterly  take  from  him,  nor  suffer 
my  faithfulness  to  fail.  My  covenant  will  I  not 
break,  nor  alter  the  thing  that  is  gone  out  of  my 
lips.  Once  have  I  sworn  by  my  holiness  ;  I  will 
not  lie  unto  David.  His  seed  shall  endure  forever, 
and  his  throne  as  the  sun  before  me.  It  shall  be 
established  forever  as  the  moon,  even  the  faithful 
witness  in  the  sky." 

2.  What  notices  of  the  covenant  made  with 
David  do  we  find  in  the  prophets  }  To  understand 
these  notices,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the 
well-known  fact  that  in  the  diction  of  the  Bible  the 
name  of  the  progenitor  becomes  a  name  common 
to  the  progeny.  As  Israel,  a  name  originally  given 
to  the  individual  Jacob,  comes  to  be  used  of  the 
Israelites  contemplated  collectively,  so  Levi,  orig- 
inally the  name  of  the  forefather  of  the  Levites,  is 


g5  Visions  and  Narratives. 

sometimes  used  as  a  designation  of  the  whole  tribe, 
when  considered  in  their  tribal  character.  The 
same  is  the  case  with  the  name  David.  It  is 
applied  to  the  race  as  well  as  to  the  founder  of  the 
race.  It  may  include  both  the  one  and  the  other. 
Such  a  use  of  the  word  appears  in  the  remarkable 
passage  of  Isaiah*  (written  centuries  after  the 
individual  David  had  died),  *'  Incline  your  ear  and 
come  unto  me  ;  hear  and  your  soul  shall  live,  and  I 
will  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  you  ;  even 
the  sure  mercies  of  David.  Behold  I  have  given 
him  for  a  witness  to  the  peoples,  a  leader  and 
commander  to  the  peoples.  Behold,  thou  shalt  call 
a  nation  that  thou  knovvest  not,  and  a  nation  that 
knew  not  thee  shall  run  unto  thee  because  of  the 
Lord  thy  God." 

Here  David  is  the  prominent  figure  throughout. 
What  is  meant  by  the  everlasting  covenant,  the 
sure  mercies  of  David  ?  "  Everlasting  "  points  back 
to  the  "  forever  "  which  is  iterated  and  reiterated  in 
the  covenant  as  uttered  by  the  mouth  of  Nathan. 
"  Sure"  is  applicable  to  the  mercies  of  David,  if  the 
things  meant  were  mercies  had  by  David  in 
promise.  "  Sure  "  was  a  word  which  would  tend  to 
recall  Nathan's  sentence,  "Thy  house  and  thy 
kincrdom   shall  be    made  sure."     But  how    can  the 

*  Isa.  Iv.  3-5. 


The  Covenant  with  David.  g»^ 

covenant  with  David  be  promised  to  peoples  at 
large,  to  persons  who,  though  inclining  the  ear  and 
coming  to  God,  w^ere  not  of  Davidic  lineage  ?  It 
can  be  thus  promised  if  this  covenant,  besides  im- 
porting dignity  for  the  Davidic  dynasty,  implies 
blessedness  for  the  subjects  of  this  dynasty — 
as  the  promise  of  your  daughter  to  a  man 
may  imply  a  benefit  to  her  as  well  as  a  favor 
to  him.  The  offer  of  the  covenant  to  people  at 
large  construes  the  covenant  and  exhibits  it  as 
involving  blessings  for  mankind  generally,  provided 
they  accept  the  conditions  on  which  the  offer  is 
made. 

When  the  divine  statement  proceeds  in  the 
words,  "  I  have  given  him  for  a  witness,"  "  him  " 
can  hardly  refer  to  any  party  but  David,  the  party 
just  before  mentioned.  But  how  had  the  race  of 
David  been  "given  for  a  witness  to  the  peoples"? 
The  race  witnessed  to  peoples  in  the  person  of  its 
founder,  in  the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel.  His 
psalms  bear  testimony  to  the  wants  of  the  human 
soul,  a  testimony  to  which  thousands  of  souls  in 
countries  distant  from  each  other,  and  in  all  ages 
since  the  writing,  have  been  responsive,  and  from 
which  these  souls  have  taken  example  and  imbibed 
consolation.  What  writings  are  so  true  to  nature  } 
Wliat  words  so  genuine  an   expression   of  contri- 


8S  Visions  and  Narratives. 

tion,  of  thankfulness,  and  of  homage  to  God  as  the 
Psalms  of  David  ?  If  Daniel  was  ''  of  the  king's 
seed,"  *  the  race  bore  witness  in  the  writings  of  this 
prophet.  Daniel  lived  in  an  age  when  king  after 
king  had  so  conducted  himself  as  to  incur  for  the 
*'  seed  "  the  forfeiture  provided  for  in  the  declara- 
tion, *'  If  it  commit  iniquity,  I  will  chastise  it  with 
the  rod  of  men,  even  with  the  stripes  of  the  children 
of  men."  Babylonian  men,  agents  unwittingly 
acting  for  God,  had  applied  the  rod  and  inflicted 
the  stripes.  They  had  deprived  David's  descend- 
ants of  succession  to  their  ancestor.  The  mon- 
archy was  in  abeyance.  The  inheritance  poten- 
tially existed,  but  did  not  rest  because  a  proper 
owner  did  not  appear.  Daniel  testified  to  the 
inheritance  as  awaiting  its  proper  owner  in  the 
person  of  a  *'  Son  of  Man,"  t  who  should  ascend  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven  to  the  ancient  of  days,  and  to 
whom  should  be  given  a  kingdom,  that  all  peoples, 
nations  and  languages  should  serve  Him.  Most  of 
all,  in  a  greater  than  Daniel,  in  the  intended  owner 
of  the  inheritance,  in  Him  in  whom  the  seed  of 
David  culminated,  the  race  testified  to  peoples  con- 
cerning God's  rights  and  man's  duties.  It  not  only 
testified  but  invited.  In  the  person  of  Christ  the 
**  seed  "  gave  calls  to  nations  which  the  race  in  the 

*  Dan.  i.  3.  ]  Dan.  vii.  13,  14. 


The  Covenant  with  David.  89 

time  of  Isaiah  knew  not,  nations  which  both  at  that 
time  and  for  ages  afterwards  knew  not  the  race, 
have  run  unto  it  In  response  to  its  calls  and  in  fulfil- 
ment of  the  word  of  Isaiah. 

3.  For  days  remote  from  the  time  in  which 
Isaiah  wrote — "for  the  latter  days  " — the  prophets 
expected  glorious  consequences  from  the  covenant 
which  had  been  made  with  David  and  his  seed. 
Not  such  were  their  expectations  for  the  period 
which  was  to  intervene  before  the  arrival  of  **  the 
latter  days."  In  the  earlier  days  of  the  future,  the 
habitation  of  the  Davidic  race  was  to  be  a  mere 
tabernacle,  and  this  with  fissures  which  needed  to 
be  repaired.  It  was  to  be  a  ruin  requiring  to  be 
built  anew  in  order  to  be  serviceable.  This  imagery 
was  suggestive  of  such  a  condition  as  that  Into 
which  the  family  fell  before  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ.  This  imagery  as  well  as  its  counterpart — 
the  closing  of  the  fissures,  the  building  up  of  the 
walls,  the  restoration  of  the  structure — is  exhibited 
in  the  last  vision  of  the  Book  of  Amos.  In  this 
passage  the  future  of  Israel  appears  under  the  name 
of  a  **  day."  The  day  is  to  bring  a  destruction  to 
this  people,  which  will  be  short  of  total  but  not  far 
short.  Nevertheless  this  day  will  not  end  without 
bringing  blessings,  blessings  which  shall  redound 
from  the  house  of  David  to  whole  nations.      **  The 


90  Visions  and  Nan^atives. 

eyes  of  God  are  upon  the  sinful  kingdom,  and  I  will 

destroy  it saving    that  I  will    not   utterfy  ^"^ 

destroy.  ...  In  that  day  will  I  raise  up  the  tab- 
ernacle of  David  that  is  fallen,  and  close  up  the 
breaches  thereof,  and  I  will  raise  up  his  [David's] 
ruins,  and  I  will  build  it  as  in  the  days  of  old  ;  that 
they  [David]  may  possess  the  remnant  of  Edom, 
and  all  the  nations  which  are  called  by  my  name, 
saith  the  Lord."  ^  In  other  places  the  race  gets  its 
name,  not  from  the  founder  of  the  dynasty,  but 
from  the  father  of  this  founder  ;  as  if  to  betoken  the 
fact  that  the  family,  before  its  eventual  exaltation, 
was  to  return  from  the  royal  condition  to  the  con- 
dition which  had  belonged  to  it  before  its  elevation 
to  royalty. 

The  reader  found  in  an  earlier  chapter  this 
destiny  for  the  dynasty  implied  by  language  of 
Micah,  in  a  manner  similar,  though  not  altogether 
the  same  with  that  to  which  we  proceed.  Jesse 
the  Bethlehemite  (the  father  of  David)  is  a  tree 
which  has  been  disbranched  and  felled.  The  stock 
has  been  cut  down.  Only  a  stump  remains.  But 
from  the  roots  of  this  stump  comes  a  shoot.  This 
sucker  (so  you  may  call  a  shoot  from  a  felled 
stock)  is  filled  with  the  Spirit,  and  so  conducts  his 
administration  that  at  length  through  his  influence 

*ix.8-i2. 


TIlc  Covenant  ivitJi  David.  91 

the  knowledge  of  God  covers  the  earth.*  "  There 
shall  come  forth  a  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse, 
and  a  branch  out  of  his  roots  shall  bear  fruit  ;  and 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him,  the  spirit 
of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  counsel 
and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the  fear 
of  the  Lord  ;  and  his  delight  shall  be  in  the  fear  of 
the  Lord,  and  he  shall  not  judge  after  the  sight  of 
his  eyes,  neither  reprove  after  the  hearing  of  his 
ears  :  but  with  righteousness  shall  he  judge  the 
poor,  and  reprove  with  equity  for  the  meek  of  the 
earth  :  and  he  shall  smite  the  earth  with  the  rod 
of  his  mouth,  and  with  the  breath  of  his  lips  shall 
he  slay  the  wicked.  They  shall  not  hurt  nor 
destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain,  for  the  earth 
shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea." 

If  in  the  utterance  last  quoted  the  expectations 
from  the  covenant  which  had  been  made  through  the 
instrumentality  of  Nathan  appear  in  their  climacteric 
stage,  and  exhibit  an  individual  descendant  of 
David  as  introducing  an  era  of  blessedness — if  the 
stock  of  David  becomes  less  conspicuous,  and  a  sin- 
gle scion  of  the  stock  becomes  the  prominent  thing 
— the  case  is  similar  in  Jeremiah.  "  Behold,  the 
days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  perform  that 
*  Isa.  xi.  1-4,  9;  compare  x.  ^iZi  34' 


g2  Visions  and  Narratives. 

good  word  which  I  have  spoken  concerning  the 
house  of  Israel.  In  those  days,  and  at  that  time, 
will  I  cause  a  branch  of  righteousness  to  grow  up 
unto  David."  '^  The  case  is  the  same  in  Zechariah, 
who  styles  the  expected  person  "  The  Man  whose 
name  is  '  The  Branch.'  " 

4.  That  the  covenant  and  the  predictions  based 
thereon  had  given  rise  to  an  expectation  that  the 
headship  of  David's  seed  would  revive — that  the 
beneficent  administration  of  the  ancestor  would 
come  again  in  the  administration  of  a  scion  of  the 
stock  of  that  ancestor — is  plain  from  many  parts 
of  the  New  Testament  ;  and  so  much  of  the  expec- 
tation as  was  free  from  the  merely  secular  quality, 
was  never  gainsaid  by  Jesus  Christ. 

Did  this  incomparable  person  correspond  to  the 
ideal  depicted  by  the  last  words  of  David,  the 
sweet  singer  of  Israel — One  that  ruleth  over  men 
righteously,  comparable  in  the  benign  character  of 
his  influence  to  the  sunrise  of  a  cloudless  morning, 
a  morning  when  there  is  clear  shining  after  rain  "> 
Has  this  descendant  of  David,  in  accordance  with 
the  covenant,  become  the  head  of  a  kingdom  which 
began  with  Israelites,  extended  from  Israel  to 
foreign  nations  and  is  destined  to  universality  } 
There  are  Christians  who  joyfully  acknowledge  the 

*  xxxiii.   14,  15,  vi.    12. 


TJie  Covenant  with  David.  93 

whole  of  this  as  true  of  Christ  in  his  nature  as  the 
Son  of  God,  and  yet  fail  to  recognize  the  truth  as 
appHcable  to  the  Saviour  in  his  nature  as  the 
descendant  of  David.  The  New  Testament,  how- 
ever, represents  "  the  Son  of  man  " — a  title  which 
describes  Christ  in  his  assumed  nature — as  ascending 
to  heaven  in  the  body,  with  a  mouth  which  at  the 
time  was  uttering  words.  And  whereas  the  name 
Jesus  was  not  applicable  to  the  Saviour  independ- 
ently of  his  incarnation,  the  New  Testament  de- 
scribes the  ascension  as  having  been  followed  by 
the  promise,"^"  *'  This  same  Jesus  which  is  taken  up 
into  heaven  shall  so  come  even  as  ye  have  seen  him 
go  into  heaven."  Years  after  his  ascension  St.  Paul 
could  write  in  the  present  tense,  *'  In  him  t 
dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily." 
**  There  is  one  %  mediator  between  God  and  man, 
the  man  Christ  Jesus."  In  the  nature  which  He  had 
vouchsafed  to  assume,  and  without  which  He  could 
not  die,§  the  Father  raised  Him  from  the  dead  and 
set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly 
places,  and  put  all  things  under  His  feet  and  gave 
Him  to  be  head  over  all  things  to  the  church. 
And  He  has  done  this  for  the  whole  interval  be- 
tween His  first  and  second  comings.  When  inter- 
rogated   by  Pontius    Pilate,   "  Art    thou   a    king  .? " 

*  Acts  i.  II.        f  Col.  ii.  9.        X  I  Tim.  ii.  5.        §  Eph.  i.  20-22. 


94  Visions  and  Narratives. 

Christ  answered  in  the  affirmative,  though  a  nega- 
tive answer  might  have  averted  his  crucifixion. 
"  I  am  a  king."  ^  Because  veracity  required  such  an 
answer,  (though  he  explained,  "■  My  kingdom  is  not 
of  this  world,")  he  added,  ''  To  this  end  have  I  been 
born  and  to  this  end  have  I  come  into  the  world, 
that  I  might  bear  Avitness  unto  the  truth." 

To  be  a  king  one  needs  to  be  supreme  over  all 
persons  and  things  within  one's  realm,  and  needs 
no  more.  But  to  be  the  King  foretold  in  the  Old 
Testament,  the  claimant  of  this  kingship  must,  after 
dying,  live  in  a  body  raised  from  the  dead,  must  sit 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  in  Heaven,  must 
minister  as  a  priest  while  administering  as  king, 
and  must  be  capable  of  extending  His  earthly  king- 
dom in  the  midst  of  obstacles,  until  it  becomes 
universal.  This  session,  ministry,  administration 
and  capacity  the  New  Testament  ascribes  to  the 
one  mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man 
Christ  Jesus,  man  v/hile  more  than  man,  born  of  the 
seed  of  David,  yet  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  by 
resurrection  from  the  dead. 

*  John  xviii,  37. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    LORD    OF    DAVID. 

Psalm  CX. 

The  Psalm  consists  of  two  addresses,  One  address 
is  directed  by  the  Universal  Father  to  a  person  whom 
the  'writer  calls  his  lord. 

**  Jehovah  saith  unto  my  lord,  Sit  thou  at  my  right 
hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool. 
Jehovah  shall  send  forth  thy  rod  of  might  out  of 
Zion.  Rule  thou  in  the  midst  of  thine  enemies. 
Thy  people  offer  themselves  willingly  in  the  day  of 
thy  power.  In  beauties  of  holiness,  from  the  womb 
of  the  morning,  thou  hast  the  dew  of  thy  youth. 
Jehovah  hath  sworn,  and  will  not  repent,  thou  art  a 
priest  forever  after  the  description  of  Melchisedek." 

The  other  address  seems  to  be  responsive.  It  is 
directed  by  the  Psalmist  to  the  Universal  Father  and 
speaks  of,  rather  than  to,  the  writer's  lord. 

*'  The  Lord  at  thy  right  hand  shall  crush  kings  in 

the  day  of  his  wrath.     He  shall  judge  among  the 

95 


96  Visions  and  Narratives. 

nations  :  He  shall  fill  places  with  dead  bodies.  He 
shall  crush  the  head  in  many  countries.  He  shall 
drink  of  a  brook  in  His  way.  Therefore  shall  he  lift 
up  his  head." 

I.  Who  is  meant  by  the  writer's  lord  }  Of  the 
answer  to  this  question,  the  inquirer  cannot  judge 
until  he  has  scanned  the  traits  which  the  Psalm  ex- 
hibits as  belonging  or  destined  to  belong  to  the  lord 
of  the  writer.  If  the  Psalm  had  been  written  during 
the  life  of  Saul,  Saul  might  be  conceived  of  as  the 
lord  of  David,  since  David  was  during  that  time  a 
subject  and  Saul  his  king.  But  the  mention  of  Zion 
in  the  sacred  ode,  as  the  place  whence  is  to  proceed 
the  sway  or  sceptre  of  the  person  at  first  addressed 
(not  to  insist  at  present  upon  other  facts)  proves 
that  the  Psalm  must  be  referred  to  that  period  of 
David's  life  in  which  he  was  an  independent  sover- 
eign, viz.:  the  period  in  which  the  city  Zion  had 
come  into  the  hands  of  the  Israelites,  and  been  made 
the  place  where  the  king  of  Israel  held  court.  Saul 
cannot  be  the  lord — the  master  or  superior — of 
David,  in  the  sense  of  this  ode. 

The  person  addressed  by  the  Universal  Father  is 
to  have  a  day  of  power,  which  implies  that  he  is  to 
have  or  has  had  a  day  of  comparative  weakness  or 
ineffectiveness.  There  is  to  be  a  day  of  his  wrath. 
This  implies  a  day  of  grace  which  is  to  follow  or 


TJlc  Lord  of  David.  97 

has  preceded.  He  is  a  person  then  in  the  history 
of  whom  there  are  two  states  or  stages.  The  orna- 
ments of  his  people  and  his  people  themselves  arc 
peculiar.  The  ornaments  are  not  those  of  soldiers 
or  courtiers — they  are  sacred — are  beauties  of  holi- 
ness. The  origin  of  his  people  is  so  described  as  to 
import  that  a  new  day  is  about  to  dawn  upon  man- 
kind— no  doubt  the  same  as  just  before  is  called  the 
day  of  his  power,  and  that  the  coming  daybreak  is 
to  bring  forth  this  people  as  the  womb  of  a  mother 
may  give  birth  to  offspring  :  The  youth  who  come 
forth  from  this  womb,  the  people  belonging  to  the 
person  whom  the  Psalm  celebrates,  array  them- 
selves on  his  side,  are  had  by  him  as  his  own,  and  for 
their  numbers  or  refreshing  influence  are  compar- 
able to  drops  of  dew.  The  person  exercises  sacer- 
dotal as  well  as  royal  functions.  He  holds  "the 
rod  of  empire,"  a  sceptre.  This  fact  marks  him  as 
a  king.  Nevertheless  he  is  declared  to  be  a  priest. 
A  priest  is,  in  the  language  of  the  Bible,  a  negotiator 
who  transacts  on  behalf  of  another.  Except  in  the 
few  cases  where  the  word  imports  the  notion  of  such 
an  officer  as  transacts  for  people  at  the  side  or  in 
front  of  a  human  king,  it  expresses  the  idea  of  an 
officer  w^ho  intervenes  on  behalf  of  his  fellow-men 
before  God,  by  making  expiation.  When  the 
priestly   function    is    ascribed    to    a    monarch     not 


98  Visions  and  Narratives. 

subject  to  another  monarch,  it  can  be  under- 
stood of  nothing  but  the  practice  of  the  negotiator 
who  intervenes  before  God  by  sacrifice.  Such  a 
king,  a  king  uniting  in  himself  both  the  ^sacerdotal 
quaHty  and  the  regal,  had  been  nondescript  in  the 
biblical  history,  except  in  the  case  of  a  monarch  who 
had  reigned  at  a  place  called  Salem,  centuries  before 
the  time  of  David,  a  monarch  named  Melchisedek. 
Nevertheless  the  lord  of  David  is  in  our  Psalm  de- 
clared to  be  a  priest  and  the  ancient  Melchisedek  is 
brought  into  view  as  a  precedent  or  type.  The 
brief  notice  of  Melchisedek  in  the  book  of  Genesis* 
embodies  the  ideal  in  accordance  with  which  the 
Psalm  contemplates  the  priest  king  addressed.  The 
priesthood  of  the  person  is  perpetual,  and  the  assur- 
ance of  perpetual  priesthood  to  the  king,  as  if  im- 
plying a  gift  hardly  to  be  expected  by  those  for 
whom  the  priesthood  is  to  be  exercised,  as  if  imply- 
ing a  promise  too  good  to  be  easily  believed — is 
ushered  in  by  a  double  guarantee,  by  an  oath  and 
by  an  appeal  to  the  Divine  unchangeableness  : 
"  Jehovah  hath  sworn  and  will  not  repent.  Thou 
art  a  priest  forever,  after  the  description  of  Mel- 
chisedek." If  the  place  of  the  sceptre  which  David 
swayed  was  Zion  of  the  earthly  Jerusalem,  this 
sceptre  or  the  sway  which  it  betokened  was  in  the 
*  Gen,  xiv.  i  ;-20. 


TJie  Lord  of  David.  99 

hand  of  the  person  celebrated  to  go  therefrom  in 
such  manner  as  to  reach  the  hands  of  his  adversaries. 
However  the  case  may  be  in  the  earUer  career  of  the 
lord  of  David,  this  career  is  not  to  end  before  he 
has  reduced  all  powers  adverse  to  his  rule.  He  is 
to  inflict  a  widespread  massacre,  to  break  the  power 
of  potentates,  to  crush  the  head  in  many  countries, 
and  so  doing  to  become  ruler  among  his  enemies. 
That  the  priest  king  will  not  fail  nor  be  discouraged  ; 
that  successes  will  make  his  head  erect  in  cases 
wherein  it  might  be  expected  to  droop  ;  that  a  re- 
viving influence  is  to  be  imbibed  by  him  while  his 
conflict  with  his  enemies  is  in  course,  may  be  the 
thing  intended  by  the  prophecy,  "  He  shall  drink 
of  a  brook  in  his  way  :  Therefore  he  shall  lift  up  his 
head."  Such  are  the  traits  which  mark  the  quality, 
— such  the  lineaments  which  constitute  the  portrait 
' — of  the  person  of  whom  the  iioth  Psalm  makes 
mention. 

2.  The  question  arises,  Did  these  traits  belong  to 
any  person  who  lived  in  Old  Testament  times  ? 
There  are  those  who  answer  this  question  by  the 
allegation  that  the  person  meant  was  David  him- 
self, and  that  if  he  was  the  writer  of  the  Psalm,  he 
wrote  it  that  it  might  be  sung  by  the  congregation 
in  homage  to  the  writer  :  the  lord  addressed  by 
Jehovah  was  simply  the  sovereign  of  the  Israelitish 


lOO  Visions  and  Narratives. 

territory.  The  sanctuary  was  in  one  part  of  the 
hill  Zion,  David's  house  was  in  another  part  of  the 
same  hill,  and  therefore  David  could  be  spoken  of 
as  called  to  sit  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  This  is 
much  to  assume.  It  seems  like  saying  that  a  man 
who  resides  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  church,  sits  at 
the  right  hand  of  God.  Moreover  the  hill  of  Zion 
(so  called)  was  considerable  in  extent.  It  was 
largely  occupied  by  houses.  Its  palaces^  were  to 
Israel  a  matter  of  exultation.  The  many  occupants 
of  these  palaces  might,  for  the  reason  assumed,  be 
equally  with  David,  represented  as  persons  invited 
to  sit  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Moreover,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  person  divinely  addressed  is  declared 
to  be  a  priest,  and  David,  notwithstanding  the  much 
to  the  contrary  which  has  of  late  been  said,  never 
appears  in  the  Scriptures  as  possessed  of  the  priestly 
quality.  Under  the  constitution  of  things  which 
obtained  in  his  time,  if  the  biblical  accounts  which 
have  come  down  to  us  are  in  any  wise  trustworthy, 
the  regal  and  the  sacerdotal  offices  could  no  more 
meet  in  one  individual  than  under  the  American 
Constitution  the  executive  and  the  judicial  func- 
tions can  thus  meet.  Does  it  follow  from  such  con- 
siderations that  the  sacred  ode  with  which  we  have 
to  do  involves  by  implication  the  exchange  of  the 

*  Ps.  xlviii.  3,  13. 


The  Lord  of  David.  I  or 

Mosaic  economy  for  a  system  in  some  respects  dif- 
ferent ?  Nothing  short  of  this  is  involved.  Nothing- 
less  than  the  inauguration  of  a  new  order  of  things 
is  implied  by  the  positive  oath  and  the  negative 
declaration  which  succeeds  the  oath — by  the  two- 
fold utterance,  the  Lord  hath  sworn  and  will  not  re- 
pent. Either  the  assurance  thus  introduced  is  preg- 
nant with  meaning,  or  the  introduction  de- 
serves the  sarcasm,  "  Parturiunt  montes,  nascetur 
ridiculus  mus."  A  member  of  the  Davidic  dynasty 
could  not  be  a  priest  without  a  change  of  dispensa- 
tion. A  change  of  dispensation  is  a  thing  of  which 
the  authors  of  the  theory  here  rejected  will  not  ad- 
mit as  within  the  contemplation  of  psalmists.  It 
follows  that  even  if  David  could  be  represented  as 
sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God  for  the  reason  that 
his  house  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  sanctuary, 
David  could  not  be  the  person  meant  in  this  Psalm. 
The  person  celebrated  was  in  David's  time  ideal. 
The  thought  was  either  a  play  of  fancy  or  it  was  a 
vision  vouchsafed  to  the  writer  by  his  Inspirer. 

If  the  portrait  involved  in  the  ode  contains  linea- 
ments inconsistent  with  the  Mosaic  economy — if 
the  portrait  involves  the  prophecy  that  a  priest  non- 
descript in  the  law  and  of  a  quality  inconsistent 
with  the  law,  was  to  arise — if  involving  this,  the  por- 
trait involves  a  superseding  of  the  covenant  made 


I02  Visions  and  Narratives, 

at  Sinai — nothing  stranger  was  thus  implied  than 
was  afterwards  expressly  said  in  Jeremiah  : "'  "  Be- 
hold, the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will 
make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel  and 
with  the  house  of  Judah,  not  according  to  the  cov- 
enant I  made  with  their  fathers  in  the  day  that  I 
took  them  by  the  hand  to  bring  them  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  which  my  covenant  they  brake,  al- 
though I  was  an  husband  unto  them,  saith  the 
Lord."  By  those  critics  who  can  think  that  the  i  loth 
Psalm  was  to  be  sung  in  homage  to  David  within 
the  courts  of  the  sanctuary  the  objection  is  made 
that  the  ideas  we  have  attributed  to  the  ode  lie  out- 
side of  the  range  of  Old  Testament  thought.  The 
truth  is  that  the  lord  of  David  is  a  conception  which 
in  different  aspects  appears  again  and  again  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  those  Christian  scholars 
who  concede  the  contrary,  surrender  more  than 
could  have  been  captured.  As  the  change  of  cov- 
enants appears  in  Jeremiah,  so  the  priest  king  ap- 
pears in  Zechariah.t  By  this  prophet,  the  unique 
scion  of  the  stock  of  David — ''  the  man  whose  name 
is  the  branch  " — is  exhibited  as  wearing  two  crowns 
and  as  giving  forth  from  the  two  capacities  denoted 
by  these  crowns,  the  sacerdotal  and  the  kingly,  *'  the 
council   of  peace."     The   day  of  power  appears  in 

*Jer.  xxxi.  31,  32.  f  Zech.  vi.  II-13. 


TJic  Lord  of  David.  103 

Isaiah,""  the  day  of  wrath  in  the  second  Psalm, f  the 
universal  rule  in  Daniel.:): 

3.  To  turn  from  the  Old  Testament  to  the  New. 
That  Jesus  Christ  recognized  David  speaking;  in  the 
Spirit,  as  the  author  of  this  sacred  ode,  and  recog- 
nized the  lord  therein  described  as  being  the  Mes- 
siah, plainly  appears  from  the  question  the  Saviour 
addressed  to  the  Pharisees, §  "  What  think  ye  of  the 
Christ  }  Whose  son  is  He  t "  They  answered,  *'  The 
son  of  David."  The  rejoinder  was,  "  How  then  doth 
David  in  the  spirit  call  Him  lord,  saying,  **  The  Lord 
saith  unto  my  lord,  sit  thou  on  my  right  hand  till  I 
put  thine  enemies  underneath  thy  feet  :  If  David 
calleth  Hi;ii  lord,  how  is  He  his  son  .^  "  Such  a  ques- 
tion from  the  lips  of  Him  who  commonly  denomi- 
nated Himself  the  Son  of  man  could  have  but  one 
meaning.  It  could  not  disclaim  a  human  ancestry 
for  the  Christ.  It  imports  a  claim  to  transcend 
David,  as  a  lord  transcends  a  vassal,  and  it  alleged 
the  Psalm  in  proof  of  the  claim. 

With  regard  to  the  "day  of  power."  The  earthly 
ministry  of  our  Saviour  was  a  day  of  comparative 
ineffectiveness.  Those  who  subjected  themselves  to 
His  rule  were  comparatively  few  and  were  far  from 
having  decided  and  persistent  confidence.     Nicode- 

*Isa.  liii.  II,  12.  t  Ps.  ii.  12. 

%  Dan.  vii.  13,  14.  §  Matt.  xxii.  42-45. 


I04  Visions  and  Narratives. 

mus  could  come  to  Him  for  enlightenment,  but  only 
at  night  :  Joseph  of  Arimathea  was  a  disciple,  yet 
secretly,  for  fear  of  the  Jews.  Some  of  Christ's  fol- 
lowers on  occasions  could  withdraw,  and  walk  no 
more  with  Him.  When  our  Lord's  person  was  seized 
all  the  disciples  forsook  Him  and  fled.  But  a  new 
day  dawned.  Exalted  to  the  Father's  throne,  the 
ascended  Christ  shed  forth  that  inspiration  which  at 
the  following  Pentecost  men  in  Judaea  saw  and 
heard  in  its  effects.  Christ's  people  offered  them- 
selves willingly  ;  with  prejudices  uprooted  as  by  a 
mighty  rushing  wind,  with  an  enlightenment  and  a 
glow  significantly  figured  by  the  tongue-like  flame 
which  sat  upon  each  of  the  apostles.  Beauties  of 
holiness,  sacred  ornaments,  miraculous  powers, 
weapons  of  warfare  mighty  through  God  to  th^ 
pulling  down  of  strongholds,  qualified  them  for  the 
work  they  were  to  perform.  To  the  Messiah's  cause 
they  were  as  dew  is  to  the  earth,  so  reviving,  so 
fertilizing,  so  productive  of  fruit. 

With  allusion  to  our  Psalm,  the  New  Testament 
argues,  ''  If,  after  the  likeness  of  Melchisedek,  there 
ariseth  another  priest,  who  hath  been  made,  not 
after  the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  after 
the  power  of  an  endless  life,  there  is  a  disannulling 
of  a  foregoing  commandment  because  of  its  weak- 
ness and  unprofitableness  (for  the  law  made  nothing 


TJic  Lord  of  David.  105 

perfect),    and  a  bringing  in    thereupon  of  a  better 
hope,  through  which  we  draw  nigh  unto  God."* 

Other  parts  ofthe  vision  revealed  in  the  iioth  Psahn, 
the  parts  concerning  the  day  of  the  wrath  of  the 
lord  of  David,  the  parts  which  imply  opposition  to 
vhe  Christ  as  offered  by  earthly  potentates,  and  tell 
of  the  crushing  of  these  powers  by  Him  who  is  head 
over  all  things  to  His  church,  are  exhibited  by  the 
New  Testament  as  biding  their  time,  as  awaiting 
their  fulfilment.  Time  yet  future  is  to  hear  the  cry 
of  kings  ofthe  earth  to  mountains  and  rocks,  "  Fall 
on  us  and  hide  us  from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb." 
Gog  and  Magog  are  to  be  crushed.  A  man  of  sin, 
a  son  of  perdition,  is  to  oppose  himself  against  all 
that  is  called  God  or  is  worshipped,  and  him  the 
Lord  Jesus  is  to  slay  by  the  breath  of  his  mouth. 
The  cry  of  kings,  the  crushing  of  Gog  and  Magog, 
the  slaying  by  the  breath  of  them^outh — these,  alas  , 
will  interpret  ''  the  day  ot  His  wrath." 

*  Heb,  vi.  15,  16,  iS,  19. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

SUFFERINGS   AND   EXPECTATIONS. 

Psalm  XXIL 

Several  questions  propound  themselves  to  a 
thoughtful  reader  of  this  Psahn.  Not  the  least  of 
these  are  the  inquiries,  what  is  the  "  eating  "  attri- 
buted first  to  the  meat  and  afterwards  to  the  fat,  an 
eating  which  connects  itself  with  a  turning  to  the 
Lord  on  the  part  of  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  ? 
What  is  the  significance  of  adding  to  the  prediction 
"  all  they  that  go  down  to  the  dust  shall  bow  be- 
fore Him,"  another,  a  subsequent  prediction,  viz., 
"a  seed  shall  serve  Him"?  The  former  prediction 
may  seem  to  include  the  latter,  and  render  it  super- 
fluous. 

Consider  the  contents  of  the  sacred  ode.  Inquire 
what  was  its  origin.  Afterwards  compare  the 
Psalm  with  the  Gospels. 

The  person  who  speaks  is  at  the  time  of  speaking 
without  countenance  from  on  high.     Nothing  in  the 

108 


Sufferings  and  Expectations.  107 

circumstances  which  surround  him  goes  to  show 
that  God  is  with  him.  Though  he  prays,  he  has  to 
drink  the  cup  of  misery  which  has  come  to  his  lips. 
This  state  of  things  co-exists  with  holiness  on  the 
part  of  the  God  who  has  promised  to  answer  prayer; 
but  it  is  not  apparent  how  these  co-existing  things  are 
consistent  with  each  other.  The  lot  of  this  member 
of  the  race  of  Israel  contrasts  with  the  lot  of  his 
ancestors.  They  trusted  in  God  and  were  not  put 
to  shame,  but  he  is  despised  and  trodden  upon.  In 
his  case,  while  trouble  is  near  help  is  distant.  How 
is  this  to  be  reconciled  to  the  fact  that  God  has  not 
only  been,  but  has  been  felt  to  be  his  dependence 
throughout  his  life,  from  his  very  birth  } 

The  Sufferer  is  surrounded  by  persecutors.  They 
are  one  while  called  a  sword,  another  while  are  de- 
nominated hounds,  bulls,  lions.  Nevertheless  they 
are  human  beings,  as  is  plain  from  their  being  de- 
nominated an  assembly  of  evil  doers.  In  their  bru- 
tality they  cast  lots  before  the  eyes  of  the  sufferer  in 
order  to  determine  to  which  of  their  number  this  or 
that  part  of  his  raiment  shall  belong.  They  shake 
their  heads  in  derision.  They  laugh  him  to  scorn. 
They  say,  ''Commit  thyself  to  the  Lord.  Let  God 
deliver  him,  seeing  he  delightcth  in  him."  Mean- 
while every  bone  of  the  sufferer  makes  its  severalty 
to  be  felt — as   it  were,  asks  attention  to  its  own 


I08  Visions  and  Nai-ratives, 

ache.  The  juices  of  his  body  are  dried  up.  His 
tongue  cleaves  to  the  roof  of  his  mouth.  His  flesh 
is  about  to  return  to  the  dust  of  which  he  was 
made. 

Abruptly  the  sufferer  becomes  jubilant.  His 
sufferings  cease  to  be  mentioned.  His  utterances 
become  thanksgivings.  The  plaintive  exclamation, 
**  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  !  " 
is  exchanged  for  the  grateful  acknowledgment, 
*'  He  hath  not  despised  nor  abhorred  the  affliction 
of  the  afflicted  man,  neither  hath  he  hid  his  face 
from  him,  but  when  he  crieth  unto  him  he  heard." 
The  speaker  will  declare  how  God  is  describable,  viz., 
as  a  being  who  in  the  event  forsakes  not,  but  hears  and 
heeds.  The  speaker  will  direct  the  declaration  unto 
his  brethren  of  the  raceof  Isarel.  Amida  congregated 
people  he  will  utter  and  invoke  praises  to  the  God 
whose  servant  he  is.  He  had  made  vows  and  these 
he  vv'ill  perform.  The  vows  had  involved  the  giving 
of  a  feast,  as  is  plain  from  the  subsequent  mention, 
made  more  than  once,  concerning  persons  who  eat. 
Can  the  feast  be  the  same  as  that  which  was  after- 
wards predicted  by  Isaiah,^  the  feast  accompanied 
or  followed  by  the  removal  of  the  veil  which  ob- 
structs the  sight  of  the  peoples  of  the  earth,  the 
feast  accompanied  or  followed  by  the  swallowing 

*I.sa.  XXV.  6-8. 


Sifffcrino^s  and  Expectations.  109 

up  of  death  ?  With  regard  to  the  acceptance  of 
the  feast,  the  speaker  is  not  confident  that  the 
acceptance  will  from  the  first  be  universal.  It  is 
from  the  meek,  from  them  that  already  seek  the 
Lord,  from  the  class  whom  he  apostrophizes  in  the 
words  *'  Let  your  heart  live  forever,"  that  his  ex- 
pectations are  highest.  Nevertheless,  soon  or  late, 
all  they  that  be  fat  upon  earth  (by  '*  the  fat  "  does 
the  speaker  mean  the  fastidious  .?)  will  eat  and 
worship.  Universal  conversion  will  come  at  last. 
All  they  that  go  down  to  the  dust  will  bow  before 
the  Lord.  So  soon  as  the  speaker  had  been  able 
to  praise  his  God  because  this  being  had  not  de- 
spised or  abhorred  the  affliction  of  the  afflicted  man 
— had  not  hidden  his  face  from  the  sufferer,  but  had 
heard  him  when  he  cried — it  had  appeared  that  the 
forsaking  plaintively  inquired  about  in  the  first  ex- 
clamation of  the  sufferer  had  been  but  temporary 
at  the  most.  The  answer  to  the  "why"  of  the 
inquiry  "  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  1 "  appeared  at 
this  later  stage  of  the  development.  The  motive 
of  the  temporary  forsaking  which  the  speaker  had 
suffered  had  been  to  bring  about  a  turning  of  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth  to  the  worship  of  the  one  true 
God. 

The   closing  words  of  the    Psalm  arc,  "  A  seed 
shall    serve   him.     It  shall   be    counted     unto    the 


no  Visions  and  Narratives. 

Lord  for  the  generation.  They  shall  come  and 
shall  declare  His  righteousness  unto  a  people  that 
shall  be  born,  that  He  hath  done  "  the  righteous- 
ness. Such  is  for  the  most  part  the  translation 
given  in  the  authorized  version.  The  principal 
difference  is  that  the  English  Bible  gives  "a  gener- 
ation," where  the  Hebrew  reads  *'  the  generation." 
The  question  comes  up,  what  is  meant  by  *'  the 
generation "  ?  In  the  Bible  this  phrase  is  not 
always  used  of  a  class  of  men  distinguished  from 
other  classes  by  its  time  of  living.  It  sometimes 
distinguishes  a  class  from  other  classes  by  its  moral 
qualities.  Thus  we  hear  of  the  generation  of  the 
righteous,^  the  generation  of  them  that  seek  Him,  \ 
the  generation  of  thy  children,  %  the  generation  of 
the  upright. §  If  such  is  the  use  of  the  word  in  the 
passage  with  which  we  have  to  do,  the  prediction 
is  to  the  effect  that  a  seed  or  race  rendering 
services  to  God  will  be  reckoned  to  Him  as  a  class 
peculiarly  His  own  ;  that  this  seed  will  appear 
sooner  or  later,  and  will  declare  to  people  not  born 
at  the  time  of  the  writing  of  the  Psalm  the  thing 
which  the  sufferer  declares  in  person,  viz.,  the  right- 
eousness God  had  shown  to  him  who  at  first  had 
seemed  to  be  forsaken  to  the  will  of  his  enemies. 
The  utterance  intimates  that  a  seed  or  class  des- 

*  Ps.  xiv.  5.  t  xxiv.  6.  X  Ixxiii.  15.  §  cjcii,  2. 


Snjfcrings  and  Rxpcctatloiis.  in 

tined  to  be  credited  to  Jehovah  as  peculiarly  the 
divine  property,  the  seed  or  class  elsewhere  named 
"  the  generation  of  the  righteous,"  will  become  to 
posterity  declarers  of  the  faithfulness  the  Universal 
Father  had  shown  to  the  sufferer,  and,  so  declaring, 
will  pave  the  way  to  the  universal  conversion. 
Thus  understood,  the  closing  sentences  respecting 
service  to  be  rendered  to  the  Lord  by  "  a  seed," 
make  an  addition  to  the  meaning  of  the  prediction 
previously  made,  to  the  promise  that  the  whole  of 
mankind  should  become  His  worshippers.  The 
sentences  tell  of  the  means  or  instrumentality 
whereby  the  tidings  concerning  the  sufferer  would 
reach  people  of  a  future  period.  The  conclusion  is 
not  superfluous  or  tautological.  It  differs  from 
predictions  before  made  within  the  ode  in  this,  that 
it  provides  for  the  publication  of  the  righteous  vin- 
dication of  the  sufferer,  its  publication  to  people  of 
a  future  time.  The  '*  seed  "  may  be  the  "  holy  seed  " 
which  another  prophet  ^"  compares  to  the  substance 
of  a  tree,  a  perennial  substance  remaining  to  a  trunk 
or  stock  when  from  year  to  year  in  the  autumn  the 
tree  loses  its  leaves.  The  seed  meant  is  no  doubt 
the  godlier  part  of  Israel. 

2.     Whence  came  the  very  peculiar  ideas  which 
this  twenty-second  Psalm  imports  t     If  no  meaning 

*  Isa.  vi.  13. 


112  Visions  and  Narratives. 

ought  to  be  imputed  to  the  words  but  such  as  can 
be  got  out  of  them,  and  if  all  the  meaning  which 
resides  in  the  words  ought  to  be  acknowledged, 
interpreters  are  bound  to  admit  that  the  sufferings 
the  Psalm  tells  of,  and  especially  the  high  expecta- 
tions it  represents  as  destined  to  be  realized  from 
these  sufferings,  were  beyond  the  range  of  things 
which  David  could  mean  to  ascribe  to  himself,  and 
therefore  that  the  writer  of  the  ode  and  the  person 
who  speaks  therein  ought  not  to  be  assumed  to  be 
the  same.  The  sufferings  and  expectations  told  of 
might  be  those  belonging  to  the  race  of  Israel. 
But  it  cannot  be  the  race  that  speaks,  because  the 
race  appears  in  the  ode  as  that  which  is  to  be 
spoken  to.  They  to  whom  the  speaker  is  to  declare 
the  name  or  quality  of  his  deliverer  are  described  as 
the  speaker's  brethren,  ''  them  of  the  seed  of  Israel." 
Moreover  there  is  nothing  within  the  Psalm  which 
goes  to  show  that  the  speaker  was  in  the  time  of 
the  writer  either  existent  or  historical.  He  may  at 
that  time  have  been  an  ideal  person,  the  case  being 
similar  to  that  with  which  we  meet  in  another 
Psalm.  If  the  last  words  of  the  sweet  singer  of 
Israel,  ''  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  spake  by  me,  and 
his  words  were  on  my  lips,"  were  uttered  with 
truth,  the  writing  before  us  may  draw  a  portrait  not 
identifiable  at   the  time    of  writing,    even   by    the 


Siiffcruigs  and  Expectations.  113 

writer  of  the  Psalm.  The  portrait  may  have  been 
made  for  suspension  in  the  Old  Testament  gallery 
with  view  to  the  benefit  of  a  subsequent  age. 
Concerning  a  thing  mentioned  in  another  Psalm,  * 
the  writer  expressly  says,  "This  shall"  be  written 
for  the  generation  to  come."  Moreover,  the  person 
intended  by  the  Inspirer  of  David  might  prove  to  be 
a  king,  a  priest,  or  more  than  either,  without  being 
exhibited  in  every  vision  vouchsafed  to  this  Psalmist, 
with  such  robes  or  titles  as  would  bespeak  kingly, 
priestly,  or  superhuman  qualities. 

My  father  may  have  told  me  of  a  brother  of  his 
whom  he  had  not  seen  for  years  and  I  had  never 
seen.  I  am  now  grown  to  manhood.  A  stranger 
appears  at  the  homestead  and  declares  himself  to 
be  my  father's  brother.  Does  his  appearance  corre- 
spond with  one  and  another  of  the  portraits  hanging 
in  the  old  house,  one  exhibiting  my  uncle  as  a  boy, 
another  exhibiting  him  as  he  was  when  grown  to 
adolescence  }  Are  there  scars  on  the  face  of  the 
stranger  and  the  like  in  the  portraits  .?  These 
facts  will  have  a  weight  in  determining  the  stran- 
ger's claim  to  identity,  and  if  accompanied  by  other 
proofs  may  be  conclusive.  The  question  who  sat 
for  a  portrait  may  be  indeterminable  until  the  man 
presents  himself  in  person,  and  in  that  event  may 


ri4  Visions  and  Narratives, 

become  altogether  determinable.  Such  a  passage 
from  the  quality  of  a  thing  latent  and  inexplicable 
to  the  quality  of  a  thing  manifest  and  capable  of 
being  made  cognizable  by  the  heathen  is  attributed 
to  the  mea-ning  of  the  Old  Testament,  when  the 
preaching  of  Jesus  Christ  is  described  as  the  reve- 
lation of  a  mystery,*  "a  mystery  kept  in  silence 
through  times  eternal,  but  now  manifested  and  by 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Prophets  made  known  unto 
all  the  nations." 

3.  To  pass  from  the  prophetical  to  the  historical. 
The  New  Testament  history  exhibits  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  and  the  sufferer  who  describes  himself  in 
the  twenty-second  Psalm  as  answering  the  one  to 
the  other,  in  the  manner  of  type  and  antitype.  In 
the  account  given  by  the  gospels  Christ  appears  as 
the  Son  of  man  not  less  than  as  the  Son  of  God. 
When  his  death  approaches  He  shudders,  and  for  a 
little  time  prays  that  it  may  be  averted  :  "  Father, 
if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from  me.  Now  is 
my  soul  troubled.  And  what  shall  I  say  t  Father, 
save  me  from  this  hour.  But  for  this  cause  came  I 
unto  this  hour."  The  Saviour  is  exhibited  as 
*'  delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  fore- 
knowledge of  God,"  "delivered  into  the  hands  of 
men,"  "  delivered  for  our  offences,"  and,  by  conse- 

*  Rom.  xvi.  25,  26. 


Sufferings  and  Expectations.  115 

quence  as  being  forsaken  to  the  power  of  his 
enemies  by  the  Universal  Father,  **  forsaken," 
though  **  not  despised  nor  abhorred." 

A  coincidence  is  sometimes  so  extraordinary  that 
it  is  di^cult  to  believe  it  to  be  accidental.  A  case 
of  this  kind  occurred  when  fifty  years  ago  two  ex- 
presidents  of  the  United  States,  both  of  whom  had 
been  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
died  on  the  same  day,  and  that  day  the  anniversary 
of  the  signing.  The  coincidence  between  the  con- 
duct attributed  in  our  Psalm  to  the  assembly  of 
evil  doers  and  the  conduct  pursued  by  the  soldiers 
who  attended  the  crucifixion  appeared  to  the  Evan- 
gelist John  to  be  of  this  extraordinary  description. 
He  writes,  "  The  soldiers,  when  they  had  crucified 
Jesus,  took  His  garments  and  made  four  parts,  to 
every  soldier  a  part,  and  also  the  coat.  Now  the 
coat  was  without  seam,  woven  from  the  top 
throughout.  They  said  therefore  one  to  another. 
Let  us  not  rend  it,  but  cast  lots  for  it,  whose  it  shall 
be."  As  if  the  realization  of  the  idea  of  the  twenty- 
second  Psalm  might  be  conceived  of  as  the  motive 
which  prompted  the  soldiers,  the  evangelist  adds 
to  his  statement  significantly,*  "  that  the  Scripture 
might  be  fulfilled."  In  like  manner  another  evan- 
gelist writes  that   persons  near  the  place  of  cruci- 

*  John  xix.  23,  24. 


Ii6  Visions  and  Nai^ratives. 

fixion,  brutally,  as  if  willing  to  identify  themselves 
with  the  "  assembly  of  evil  doers,"  the  lions,  bulls, 
and  dogs  of  the  Psalm,  or  as  impelled  by  an  impulse 
of  which  they  were  unconscious,  derided  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  sufferer  in  words,  a  part  of  which 
they  unwittingly  took  from  our  Psalm:  ''They 
wagged  their  heads  and  said.  He  trusted  in  God 
that  he  would  deliver  him.  Let  him  deliver  him  if 
he  will  have  him,  for  he  said,  I  am  the  Son  of  God." 
*'  Jesus  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  Eli,  Eli,  lama 
sabachthani — My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou 
forsaken  me  ?  " 

For  what  did  He  make  this  exclamation,  except 
for  the  sake  of  them  who  stood  by,  that  they  might 
ponder  the  *'  Why,"  and  compare  it  with  the  conse- 
quences which  the  sufferer  in  the  Psalm  expected 
to  come  from  the  temporary  forsaking  of  which  he 
spoke.  If  the  reason  of  the  exclamation  was  differ- 
ent, for  what  cause  was  the  cry  made  in  the  same 
Hebrew  words  with  which  the  Psalm  begins  } 
Christ  did  the  thing  in  order  to  identify  Himself  with 
the  sufferer  the  Psalm  exhibits. 

With  regard  to  the  discontinuance  of  the  forsak- 
ing, the  not  despising  nor  abhorring  the  affliction  of 
the  afflicted  man,  and  the  large  expectations  of  the 
sufferer — after  Christ's  death  the  disciples,  dis- 
heartened, slow  to  understand  the  "Why"  of  the 


Sufferings  and  Expectations.  117 

forsaking,  say  one  to  another,  "  We  hoped  that  it 
was  He  who  should  redeem  Israel,"  as  if  this  hope 
had  perished  or  well  nigh  perished  with  the  cruci- 
fixion. But  on  the  third  day  Christ  is  raised  from 
the  dead,  and  the  rising  is  ascribed  to  the  power  of 
the  Father,  the  power  of  Him  who  at  the  cross  had 
seemed  to  desert  the  claims  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
On  the  day  of  the  rise  He  appears  among  His  people. 
They  are  troubled,  because  they  think  that  what 
they  behold  is  a  spectre.  To  displace  their  trouble 
He  shows  His  disciples  His  bodily  hands,  which  had 
been  perforated  by  nails.  His  fleshly  side,  which  had 
been  pierced  by  a  spear.  He  says,  "  Handle  me,  for 
a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  blood  as  ye  see  me  have." 
He  had  said,  "  I  am  the  living  bread  which  came 
down  from  heaven.  The  bread  which  I  will  give  is 
my  flesh  for  the  life  of  the  world."  He  had  at  a 
later  time  exchanged  this  figure  of  speech  for  a 
figure  of  action.  In  the  evening  which  preceded 
His  death  He  took  bread,  blessed,  brake  it,  and  said, 
"This  is  my  body."  Of  the  bread  which  had  thus 
been  given,  first  in  promise,  afterwards  in  symbol, 
and  on  the  cross  in  more  than  either  promise  or 
symbol,  the  three  thousand  of  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, a  number  which  soon  became  five  thousand, 
and  not  long  after  many  ten  thousands,  all  within 
the  single    city  Jerusalem,   ate  and  were  satisfied. 


1 1 8  Visions  and  Narratives. 

They  accepted  Christ  crucified  for  the  strengthen- 
ing and  refreshing  of  their  souls,  as  bodies  are  re- 
freshed and  strengthened  by  bread  and  wine. 

With  regard  to  "a  seed,"  which  was  to  serve  the 
Lord  and  to  be  reckoned  to  Him  as  His  generation, 
the  seed  which  was  to  come,  and  to  people  not 
born  in  the  times  of  the  sufferer  was  to  become  the 
declarers  of  the  righteous  vindication  wrought  by 
the  Universal  Father  for  His  misconstrued  represen- 
tative ;  it  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  this  seed  or 
class  appeared  in  such  of  Israel  as  accepted  the 
Messiah  ;  in  apostles  and  evangelists,  in  pastors 
and  teachers,  who  each  serving  in  his  appointed 
time  have  brought  the  gospel  of  the  life,  death  and 
resurrection  of  the  sufferer  to  us,  the  people  of  the 
present  century. 

The  twenty-second  Psalm  was  a  lock  of  unusual 
wards.  For  a  thousand  years  it  served  as  a  safe- 
guard for  the  truth  it  was  intended  to  secure.  In 
due  time  the  key  appeared  in  the  history  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  inference  that  the  lock  and  the  key 
had  had  the  same  origin  and  had  been  intended  the 
one  for  the  other,  from  that  time  forward  spoke  for 
itself. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE  SERVANT  OF  THE  LORD. 
Isaiah  XXXIX.— LXVI. 

Isaiah  lived  in  the  reiga  of  Hezekiah,  King"  of 
Judah,  some  seven  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era.  So  much  appears  from  the  historical  passage 
in  the  middle  of  the  prophet's  book.  Most  of  the 
remainder  of  the  work  answers  entirely  to  the  de- 
scription with  the  mention  of  which  the  work  begins, 
**  The  Vision  of  Isaiah."  The  business  of  the  book 
lies  with  things  invisible  to  the  outward  eye  at  the 
time  of  the  writing.  Even  the  historical  passage, 
chapters  xxxvi.-xxxix.,  inclusive,  contains  visional 
parts.  It  contains  prophecies  within  itself,  prophecies 
concerning  events  which  were  to  take  place  in  time 
near  to  the  time  of  the  utterance  of  the  prophecies. 
These  events,  predicted  within  the  limits  of  the 
historical  passage,  were  to  have  the  effect  of  guaran- 
teeing for    the    contemporaries    of  the    writer   the 

truth  of  his  visions  concerning  times  comparatively 

119 


I20  Visions  and  Narratives. 

distant,  and  so,  of  enabling  the  prophet  to  say, 
"  The  former  things  are  come  to  pass,  and  new 
things  do  I  declare.  Before  they  spring  forth  I  tell 
you  of  them."  The  new  things  thus  spoken  of,  things 
merely  germinant  in  the  age  of  the  speaker,  relate 
largely  to  a  "  Servant  of  the  LORD."  A  person  thus 
named  appears  many  times  in  the  third  of  the  prin- 
cipal portions  of  the  book. 

I.  Who  is  this  ''  Servant  of  the  Lord  }  "  Often  it 
is  Israel,  the  Israelitish  people,  that  is  denominated 
the  servant  of  Jehovah  :  *  "Ye  are  my  witnesses, 
saith  the  LORD,  and  are  My  Servant  whom  I  have 
chosen."  Israel  is  spoken  of  as  the  Lord's  messen- 
ger, as  elect  to  the  functions  of  witnessing  and  serv- 
ing, in  the  persons  of  its  ancestors,  Abraham  and 
Jacob,  and  as  performing  such  functions  for  the  bene- 
fit of  others,  even  when  the  functions  profit  not  the 
functionary.  Being  thus  doers  of  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  they  are  entitled  to  be  called  ''  the  Lord's 
servant."  They  subserve  the  Lord's  cause.  But 
Israel  is  blind  ;  none  are  more  deaf  than  he.  If  he 
sees  he  does  not  observe  ;  if  he  opens  the  eyes  of 
others,  he  does  not  open  his  own  eyes.f  "  Hear, 
ye  deaf,  and  look,  ye  blind,  that  ye  may  see.  Who 
is  blind,  but  My  Servant,  or  deaf  as  my  messenger 
that  I  send  .''  "  Because  the  deafness  and  blindness 
*  xiiii.  lo.  t  '"^l"'  18-21. 


The  Servant  of  tJie  Loi^d.  121 

of  Israelites  are  guilty,  and  because  of  the  trust  which 
is  deposited  with  them,  are  guiltier  than  they  would 
be  otherwise,  God  will  magnify  the  law  and  make  it 
be  honored  by  judgments  on  this  people.  He  will 
accomplish  His  ulterior  purpose,  the  making  Himself 
the  object  of  universal  worship  among  men,  by  tak- 
ing others  to  assume  their  place  :  *  '*  Ye  shall  leave 
your  name  for  a  curse  unto  my  chosen  ;  for  the  Lord 
God  shall  slay  thee  and  call  His  servants  by  another 
name,  so  that  he  who  blesseth  himself  on  the  earth 
shall  bless  himself  in  the  God  of  truth,  and  he  that 
sweareth  on  the  earth  shall  swear  by  the  God  of 
truth." 

The  servant  of  the  Lord  is  sometimes  a  people 
distinguishable  from  Israel  considered  in  the  bulk, 
distinguishable  as  the  kernel  of  a  nut  is  from  the 
shell,  as  the  invisible  church  is  from  the  visible. 
Within  the  nation  there  is  a  select  part.  This  select 
part  is  chosen  in  a  higher  sense  than  the  race  at 
large  and  is  not  to  be  cast  away.  Their  seed  and 
name  are  to  remain.  They  are  compared  to  the 
valuable  juice  contained  in  grapes,  for  the  sake  of 
which  the  cluster  is  to  be  kept  from  utter  destruc- 
tion. *' As  the  fruit  is  found  within  the  cluster,  and 
one  saith.  Destroy  not  the  cluster,  for  a  blessing  is 
in  it  ;  so  will  I  do  for  My  Servants'  sakes,  that  I 
*  Ixv.  15. 


122  Visions  and  Narratives. 

destroy  not  all."  This  part  of  the  people  is  to  be 
joined  by  persons  foreign  to  the  Israelitish  race. 
God,  which  gathereth  the  outcasts  of  Israel,  saith, 
yet  will  I  gather  others  to  him,  beside  his  own  that 
are  gathered."  These  members  of  Israel,  elect  from 
a  body  itself  elect,  are  to  scatter  all  hindrances, 
mountainous  as  the  obstacles  in  their  path  may  be, 
and  to  vindicate  their  quality  as  the  servant  of  the 
Lord,  by  effecting  His  purposes,  not  only  with  sin- 
cerity, but  with  eventual  success."^  "  Thou  shalt 
thresh  mountains  and  beat  them  small,  and  shalt 
make  the  hills  as  chaff.  Thou  shalt  fan  them,  and 
the  wind  shall  scatter  them,  and  thou  shalt  rejoice 
in  the  Lord,  thou  shalt  glory  in  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel." 

Occasionally  the  title  ''Servant  of  the  Lord"  is 
applied  to  a  party  hardly  the  same  with  either  the 
bulk  or  the  select  portion  of  Israel.  Remarkable 
are  the  utterances  which  appear  in  a  speech  ad- 
dressed to  heathen  nations.  A  speaker  who  repre- 
sents himself  as  addressed  by  God  under  the  title 
"  My  Servant,"  and  as  addressed  also  under  the  name 
"Israel  " — this  speaker  strangely  represents  himself 
likewise  as  having  had  for  his  vocation  the  function 
of  recovering  Israel,  of  bringing  Israel  back  to  his 
God.    An  Israel  is  to  be  the  restorer  of  Israel.     The 

*  xli.  15,  16. 


TJic  Scj'va?it  of  tJie  Lord.  123 

speaker  invites  distant  peoples  to  listen  to  him.  His 
penetrating  speech  was  comparable  to  a  sword  or 
arrow,  though  in  his  earlier  life  the  sword  had  been 
in  a  scabbard,  the  arrow  had  been  hidden  in  a  quiver. 
The  speech,  penetrating  as  it  was,  had,  after  becom- 
ing public,  not  reached  the  heart  of  the  bulk  of  Israel 
or  recovered  this  straying  people.  He  complains 
that  he  had  labored  in  vain.  The  complaint  is  an- 
swered by  the  reassuring  declaration  that  a  far 
higher  vocation  has  been  assigned  to  him  in  the 
counsels  of  the  Universal  Father,  the  vocation  of  re- 
covering to  duty,  to  God,  and  to  well  being  the  be- 
nighted among  mankind  at  large.^  *'  It  is  too  light 
a  thing  that  thou  shouldst  be  my  Servant  to  raise 
the  tribes  of  Jacob.  I  will  give  thee  for  a  light  to  the 
Gentiles,  that  thou  mayst  be  my  salvation  unto  the 
end  of  the  earth."  Thus  saith  the  Lord  to  him  whom 
man  despiseth,  to  him  whom  the  nation  abhorreth  : 
Kings  shall  see  and  arise  ;  princes,  and  they  shall 
worship.  Who  can  this  speaker  be — this  Israel  who 
was  to  recover  Israel }  Is  he  a  plurality  or  a  single  in- 
dividual t  In  places  in  which  Israel  is  a  people,  a 
plurality,  the  fact  discovers  itself  by  the  intermixture 
of  plural  with  singular  forms  of  speech  ;  for  example, 
in  the  address, t  *' Ye  are  my  witnesses  and  my  Ser- 
vant whom  I  have  chosen."     "  Ye  "  in  this  passage 

*  xlix.  1-9.  t  Isaiah  xliii.   lo. 


124  Visions  and  Nari^atives. 

stands  in  a  place  where  ''  Thou  "  might  be  expected, 
and  ''  witnesses  "  appears  in  the  diction  where  "  wit- 
ness "  could  not  but  be  the  phrase,  if  an  individual 
were  meant.  There  is  nothing  of  this  sort  in  the  utter- 
ances with  which  we  are  now  concerned.  The 
parties  to  be  restored  appear  as  races,  but  the  re- 
storer exhibits  himself  in  the  aspect  of  a  person 
simply  and  solely.  Consider  the  title  of  honor 
which  had  been  solemnly  given  to  an  ancestor  of 
the  chosen  people.  Reflect  that  Israel  had  been  the 
name  of  the  progenitor  before  it  became  the  name 
of  his  progeny.  The  title  had  been  given  to  the 
ancestor  in  token  of  the  fact  that  he  had  wrestled 
with  God  and  wrestled  prevailingly.  The  progeni- 
tor had  received  for  himself  and  his  progeny  the 
promise  that  he  and  they  should  be  the  channel  of 
benediction  to  the  races  of  mankind,  and  thereby 
of  glorification  to  God — the  promise  t  "  In  thee  and 
thy  seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed."  If  this  promise  was  to  reach  its  highest 
realization  in  a  single  member  of  the  progeny,  and 
this  person  was  to  be  an  intercessor,  what  wonder 
that  this  incomparable  individual  should  appear,  in 
the  ideal  exhibited  to  the  mind  of  Isaiah,  as  ad- 
dressed in  the  words,  ''  Thou  art  My  Servant  Israel, 
in  whom  I  shall  be  glorified  .?  "     If  the  restorer  of 

*Gen.  xxviii.  14  ;  xxxii,  24-28. 


TJie  Servant  of  the  Lord.  125 

mankind  could  with  allusion  to  the  ruiner  of  the 
human  race  be  denominated,  in  New  Testament 
phrase,  the  second  Adam,  what  the  wonder  if,  with 
allusion  to  an  antecedent  promise,  a  second  Israel 
appears  in  an  Old  Testament  vision  as  embodying 
the  conception  of  such  a  restorer  ?  Something- 
mystical,  something  in  the  nature  of  a  germ  requir- 
ing development,  lies  in  the  fact  that  both  the 
party  to  be  restored  and  the  party  restoring  appear 
under  the  name  of  Israel.  The  same  mystical  diction 
appears  in  passages  written  after  the  death  of  David, 
in  which  a  future  member  of  the  dynasty  founded 
by  the  son  of  Jesse  bears  this  monarch's  name. 
"  Afterward  shall  the  children  of  Israel  return  and 
seek  the  Lord  their  God,  and  David  their  king  .  .  . 
in  the  latter  days."  *  '*  I  will  set  up  one  shepherd 
over  them  .  .  .  even  my  servant  David."  t  David 
is  plainly  the  name  of  both  the  nadir  and  the 
zenith  of  that  dynasty  which  the  prophets  conceive 
of.     Is  not  the  name  Israel  used  analogously  } 

It  is  with  traits  which  suit  a  person  rather  than  a 
people,  that  "the  Servant  of  the  Lord  "  appears  in 
another  representation  made  by  our  prophet,:}:  a 
representation  which  must  be  meant  of  a  time  inter- 
mediate between  the  failure  in  the  land  of  Israel  and 
the  success  in  lands  of  the  Gentiles.     In  this  passage 

*  Hosea  iii,  5,  f  Ezek.    xxxiv.  23.  f  xlii,  1-8. 


126  Visions  and  Narratives, 

judgment — ^judgment  in  the  earth,  judgment  to  truth, 
judgment  to  the  Gentiles — is  the  prominent  thing 
the  servant  is  to  bring  about.  But  the  connection 
is  such  that  the  judgment  meant  can  hardly  be  any- 
thing but  one  of  redress  to  the  Gentiles  and  to  the 
truth  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  judgment  consisting  in 
retribution  to  graven  images  on  the  other  hand. 
The  judgment  proceeds  from  a  judge  who  is  such  in 
character  that  he  breaks  not  the  bruised  reed  nor 
quenches  the  smoking  flax,  and  the  outcome  of  the 
judgment  is  that  the  isles  await  his  law.  Discour- 
agements may  meet  him,  but  he  will  neither  give  up 
nor  despond  until  he  has  succeeded  in  the  work  of 
redressing  the  wrongs  men  and  the  truth  have  suf- 
fered from  idolatry.  Whatever  the  opposition  he 
may  encounter,  he  will  not  be  loud  or  boisterous  ; 
he  will  pursue  his  end  without  tumult  or  outcry. 
Noiselessly,  and  without  either  failure  or  discourage- 
ment he  will  prosecute  the  duty  assigned  him  in  the 
counsels  of  the  Universal  Father. 

In  a  similar  manner,  with  qualities  which  belong 
to  an  individual  rather  than  a  people,  the  subject 
of  discourse  appears  in  another  of  Isaiah's  visions.  I 
mean  the  remarkable  vision  *  of  eventual  exalta- 
tion and  antecedent  suffering,  the  ''  report  "  of  which 
has  for  ages  attracted  so  much  attention  and  touched 

*  lii.  13-liii.  12. 


The  Servant  of  the  Lo7'd.  127 

so  many  hearts.  Here  the  subject  of  the  prophet's 
utterances  is  called  by  the  Lord  "  My  righteous  Ser- 
vant," though  the  contrary  of  righteousness  is  else- 
where in  Isaiah  the  thing  attributed  to  Israel  as  a 
nation.  He  is  denominated  "  a  man  of  sorrows,"  and 
there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  this  "  man  "  is  in  any 
sense  a  plurality:  He  has  a  susceptibility  of  being 
cut  off  out  of  the  land  of  the  living,  and  is  consigned 
to  a  grave — a  susceptibility  and  consigning  often 
and  emphatically  declared  to  be  things  from  which 
the  select  portion,  if  not  the  whole,  of  Israel  must 
as  a  race  be  always  exempt.  The  **  seed  "  must  ac- 
complish its  mission  before  it  can  expire.  The  tree  * 
may  from  time  to  time  cast  its  leaves,  but  the  trunk 
will  keep  its  substance.  Think  of  the  utterance  :  t 
**  If  heaven  above  can  be  measured  and  the  founda- 
tions of  the  earth  searched  out  beneath,  I  will  also 

*Isa.  VI.  13. 

t  Jer.  xxxi.,  37  The  disruption  into  chapters  began  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years  after  Old  Testament  times,  and  is  not  recognized  in  the  syna- 
gogue lessons.  It  often  mars  the  connection.  Chapter  lii.  13-15  in  Isaiah 
reports  for  the  servant  an  eventual  influence  upon  whole  nations,  which 
influence  shall  contrast  with  the  earlier  effect  of  his  appearance-  Chapter 
iiii.  1-9  proceeds  to  tell  more  fully  of  this  appearance,  and  of  its  effects, 
viz.:  of  disesteem,  misconstruction,  suffering  and  death.  These  come 
to  the  Servant,  seem  to  belie  the  report  and  cause  disbelief.  Chapter 
Iiii.  10-12  iterates  the  report,  and  declares  that  the  suffering  and  death 
will  be  not  only  an  antecedent  to  the  exaltation,  but  its  cause. 


128  Visions  and  Narratives. 

cast  off  all  the  seed  of  Israel  for  all  that  they  have 
done,  saith  the  Lord." 

The  Servant  reaches  the  highest  elevation  in  the 
minds  of  men.  He  is  extolled,  nations  and  their 
kings  acknowledge  him,  but  acknowledgment  is 
not  rendered  him  immediately.  He  does  not  reach 
such  results  except  by  the  road  of  ignominy  and 
suffering.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  his  career  he  is 
like  a  root  rising  from  dry  ground,  a  thing  not 
sightly.  Men  avert  their  eyes  from  him.  He  is  de- 
spised and  rejected.  Far  from  regarding  the  griefs 
and  sorrows  which  are  upon  him,  as  caused  by  the 
sins  of  others,  mortals  regard  these  sufferings  as  an 
infliction  deserved  by  himself.  Under  oppression, 
when  on  his  way  to  be  slaughtered,  the  Servant  of 
the  Lord  (as  in  the  scene  we  lately  contemplated) 
abstains  from  loudness  in  the  streets.  He  opens 
not  his  mouth  ;  he  dies  ;  his  body  is  interred  in  a 
grave  ;  his  soul  has  become  an  offering  for  sin. 
And  it  is  after  he  has  thus  suffered  that  the  pleasure 
of  the  "  Lord  prospers  in  his  hands.  It  is  because 
he  had  entered  into  the  lot  deserved  by  trans- 
gressors and  had  poured  out  his  soul  unto 
death  that  he  enters  into  the  category  of  the 
victorious,  becomes  a  conqueror,  has  the  great  of 
the  earth  allotted  to  him  as  captives,  apportions 
among  his  people  the  avails  of  his   victories   and 


TJie  Servant  of  the  Lord.  129 

attains  to  homage  far  and  wide  in  the  regions  of 
the  world. 

2.  To  draw  to  a  close.  The  notion  of  the  Servant 
of  the  Lord,  variously  as  it  is  exhibited  by  Isaiah,  is 
resolvable  into  one  idea  having  different  phases  or 
stages  of  development.  Moreover,  all  of  these  stages 
have  in  history  been  brought  to  realizations,  either 
consummated  or  incipient.  Israel  in  the  mass  an- 
swered and  now  answers  to  the  characterization  ex- 
pressed in  the  remarkable  address,  *^  Ye  are  my  wit- 
nesses." The  race  testifies  to  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  the  invaluable  contents  of  those 
books.  The  race  has  been  and  is  a  *'  messenger  "  to 
the  nations,  opening  the  ears  of  people  foreign  to  it, 
yet  a  messenger  not  hearkening  to  the  tidings  which 
it  carries,  the  keeper  of  prophecy,  the  living  fulfil- 
ment thereof,  yet  having  a  veil  upon  its  own  eyes. 

When  the  "Servant  of  the  Lord"  describes  the 
better  part  of  the  race,  the  select  of  Israel,  the  con- 
ception has  its  counterpart  in  Psalmists  and  Prophets 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Especially  it  has  its  coun- 
terpart in  the  twelve,  the  seventy,  and  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty  of  whom  the  New  Testament 
makes  mention.  These  and  other  Jews  like-minded 
answer  the  description  given  when  Isaiah  tells  of  an 
Israel  not  cast  away  and  joined  by  sons  of  the 
stranger.     They   were   a   nucleus  to  which   people 


130  Visions  and  Narratives. 

gathered  until  the  nucleus  reached  the  dimensions 
of  the  present  Christendom. 

Does  the  vision  concerning  the  **  Servant  of  the 
Lord  "  take  a  further  development  ?  Does  the  pyra- 
mid reach  its  apex  in  an  individual  ?  The  prophecy 
came  to  its  verification  in  Jesus,  the  person  thus 
named  before  He  was  conceived  in  the  womb.  Dur- 
ing the  first  thirty  years  of  His  earthly  life  the  Found- 
er of  Christianity  had  been  as  a  sword  within  a 
scabbard,  as  an  arrow  within  a  quiver.  He  had  been 
but  little  known.  Subsequently  He  announced  Him- 
self, with  speech  how  penetrating  !  Nevertheless, 
when  near  the  end  of  His  public  ministry  He  could 
speak  of  the  comparative  fewness  of  the  Israelites 
whom  He  had  gathered  for  the  Father  in  the  lament- 
ing words,  ''Jerusalem,  Jerusalem!*  Thou  that 
killest  the  prophets  and  stonest  them  that  are  sent 
unto  thee  !  How  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy 
children  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  brood  under  her 
wings  ;  and  ye  would  not."  Penetrating  as  was  His 
word,  Christ  rarely  used  loud  speech  ;  He  avoided 
publicity  in  cases  where  publicity  and  loudness  were 
not  indispensable  for  the  prosecution  of  His  work. 
In  a  synagogue  on  a  Sabbath,  the  Saviour  had  by 
word  of  mouth  caused  a  withered  hand  to  become 
as  healthy  as  the  other  hand  of  a  sufferer  present. 

■X  Matt,  xxiii.  37. 


The  Servant  of  the  Lord.  131 

This  use  of  the  sacred  day  roused  the  wrath  of 
zealots  belonging  to  the  congregation.  The  Phari- 
sees took  counsel  against  Him  that  they  might  de- 
stroy Him.  Knowing  the  fact  He  withdrew  from  the 
neighborhood.  Great  multitudes  followed  Him.  He 
healed  them  all,  as  He  had  healed  the  man  in  the 
synagogue.  These  multitudes  consisted,  to  a  large 
extent,  of  persons  who  expected  to  find  in  the  Mes- 
siah a  secular  deliverer.  They  were  people  of  the 
same  sort  as  on  another  occasion  proposed  to  take 
Jesus  by  force  and  make  Him  king.*  A  war  cry  on 
his  part  would  have  been  enough  to  bring  about  a 
rising  on  the  part  of  the  multitudes.  He  not  only 
continued  to  be  away  from  the  disturbed  neighbor- 
hood, but  charged  the  multitudes  that  they  should 
not  make  Him  known  ;  in  order,  says  the  historian, 
St.  Matthew,t  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  Isaiah  the  prophet,  saying  :  "  Behold  ! 
my  servant  whom  I  have  chosen,  my  beloved  in 
whom  my  soul  is  well  pleased.  I  will  put  my  spirit 
upon  Him  and  He  shall  declare  judgment  to  the  Gen 
tiles.  He  shall  not  strive  nor  cry  aloud,  neither 
shall  any  one  hear  His  voice  in  the  streets.  A  bruised 
reed  shall  He  not  break  and  smoking  flax  shall  He 
not  quench,  till  He  send  forth  judgment  unto  victory, 
and  in  His  name  shall  the  Gentiles  hope." 

^Johnvi.  15.  t  Matt.  xii.  18-21. 


1^2  Visions  and  Narratives. 

Christ's  original  disciples  in  the  time  of  His  tribula- 
tion were  staves  which  gave  way  under  the  weight 
laid  upon  them  ;  they  were  lamps,  the  wick  of  which 
smoked  or  failed.  The  Saviour  did  not  throw  away 
these  reeds,  did  not  extinguish  these  smoking  wicks. 
When  the  Lord's  person  was  seized  in  the  garden 
of  Gethsemane,  all  the  disciples  forsook  Him  and  fled. 
He  had  mercy.  He  so  bound  up  or  bandaged  these 
broken  reeds  as  to  make  them  worthy  depend- 
ences to  His  cause.  He  refilled  and  relighted 
these  smoking  lamps.  He  did  not  repudiate  the 
disciple  who  had  thrice  denied  Him. 

With  regard  to  the  vision  which  exhibits  the  Ser- 
vant of  the  Lord  as  expiring  by  and  for  men,  dying 
by  their  hands  and  for  their  benefit — the  representa- 
tion speaks  for  itself.  By  language  which  our  Sa- 
viour used  at  different  times  during  His  life,  He  put 
Himself  under  the  necessity  of  verifying  the  prophecy 
in  His  own  person,  uninviting  to  human  instincts  as 
this  verification  was.  The  hypothesis  of  modern 
Jews  (a  hypothesis  not  more  contrary  to  the  appli- 
cations of  the  passage  made  in  the  New  Testament 
than  inconsistent  with  the  meaning  ascribed  to  the 
place  by  the  traditions  of  this  remarkable  people.  *) 
is  to  the  effect  that  the  Servant  is  the  Israelitish 
race  ;  some  say  the  whole  race,  others  say  the  race 

*  Hengstenberg's  '-Christology,"  Edinburgh  Ed.  Vol.  II.  pp.,  310-313. 


The  Servant  of  the  Lord.  133 

in  its  select  part.  This  theory  might  reach  a  real- 
ization if  the  race  should  in  both  the  one  and  the 
other  of  these  pluralities  pour  out  its  soul  unto 
death  in  expiation  for  human  sin  ;  but  what  in  that 
case  would  befall  the  Old  Testament  doctrine,*  that 
this  people  shall  not  cease  to  be  of  the  races  of  man- 
kind until  the  sun  and  nxjon  shall  depart  from  the 
heavens  ? 

Jews  ask  the  questions  **  At  what  time  did  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  conquer  in  a  battle  ?  when  did  He  receive 
captives  taken  in  war,  as  His  apportionment  ?  when 
did  He  allot  to  His  soldiery  the  spoil  taken  from  a 
conquered  enemy  ?  But  the  questions  make  no  dif- 
ficulty for  the  Christian.  The  reason  given  for  the 
victory  and  for  its  results,  viz.,  the  fact  that  the 
Servant  had  poured  out  His  soul  unto  death,  had 
been  numbered  with  the  transgressors  and  had  thus 
borne  the  sin  of  many,  makes  it  plain  that  neither 
the  contest  nor  the  victory  nor  the  captured  spoil 
belongs  to  the  secular  sphere.  Isaiah's  visions  con- 
cerning the  Servant  of  the  Lord  have  hitherto 
escaped  frustration,  although  frustration  was  at  the 
time  when  they  were  uttered,  and  for  ages  after- 
wards continued  to  be  the  fate  likely  in  human 
probability  to  become  their  lot.  The  Messiah  is  ex- 
tolled far  and  wide,  already.     He  now  besprinkles 

•Jer.  xxxi.  35,  56, 


134  Visions  and  Narratives. 

nations  with  an  influence  which,  in  proportion  to 
their  susceptibility  thereto,  raises  them  above  other 
nations  and  causes  their  kings,  with  a  devoutness 
greater  or  less,  to  do  Him  homage.  Some  of  the 
visions  of  Isaiah  predict  that  His  moral  conquests 
will  eventually  extend  to  the  "ends  of  the  earth." 
Christians  !  Be  confident  respecting  the  future  of 
the  nations  upon  earth.  '*  The  Ides  of  March  have 
come,  and  have  not  gone." 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  OUTPOURING  OF  THE   SPIRIT,    THE    GREAT    DAY 

OF    THE     LORD,    AND    EVENTS     WHICH    MUST 

PRECEDE   THAT  DAY. 

Joel  II.  28-32. 

There  13  to  be  an  unusual  effusion  of  the  Holy 

Spirit  ;    an   outpouring   of  inspiration    which    will 

come   upon   the   young    as  well   as  the  old,  upon 

servants,  male  and  female,  as  well  as  their  masters. 

Further  on  in  time  there  is  to  be  a  day  so  signal,  so 

surpassing  all  previous  days,  so  different  from   days 

in  which  the  human  element  seems  more  prevalent 

than  the  divine,  that  it  can  be  described  as  the  day 

of  the  Lord,  **  the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the 

Lord."     Antecedently  to  the  coming  of  this  unique 

epoch,    bloodshed,    war  and    conflagrations    which 

cause   cities  to  ascend   in   columns   of  smoke,   and, 

contemporaneously  or  subsequently,   fearful  sights 

in   the  heavens   are    to   appear.     In    the    interval 

which  is  to  elapse  before  the  great    and    terrible 

135 


136  Visions  and  Narratives. 

day,  and  perhaps  before  the  obscuration  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  the  knowledge  of  Jehovah  the  God 
of  Israel  will  reach  the  heathen,  and  among  these 
pagan  races  will  bring  about  the  invocation  of  His 
name.  Effecting  this  result  the  knowledge  will 
work  deliverance  for  the  persons  enlightened  and 
converted.  Whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name 
of  the  Lord  (Jehovah)  shall  be  delivered,  delivered 
from  the  mastery  of  sin,  delivered  in  the  great  and 
terrible  day  of  the  Lord.  If  there  is  to  be  this  sal- 
vation in  countries  distant  from  the  country  where 
the  name  of  Jehovah  had  been  before  known  and 
worshipped,  the  country  of  which  Jerusalem  was 
the  capital,  the  people  by  means  of  whom  the 
name  of  Jehovah  is  to  be  carried  to  foreign  climes 
must  escape  extirpation,  must  continue  in  the 
quality  of  a  remnant,  if  not  as  a  whole,  until  it  has 
wrought  its  work  as  God's  messenger  to  the 
nations,  and  this  escape  from  extirpation  must  in- 
clude such  of  the  individual  inhabitants  of  Zion  and 
of  other  parts  of  Jerusalem  as  shall  be  divinely 
called  to  the  errand. 

Moreover,  the  escape  of  a  remnant  when  judgment 
after  judgment  seemed  likely  to  bring  about  the 
extinction  of  the  whole  of  the  race  of  Israel  is  so 
guaranteed  by  prophecy,  and  a  universal  invocation 
of  the  name  of  Jehovah  is  so  guaranteed  by  the 


The  Great  Day  of  the  Lord.  137 

same  authority,  that  the  fulfilment  of  the  one  guar- 
antee when  witnessed  by  the  ages  will  assure  the 
hope  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  other.  The  escape  of 
a  remnant  in  Jerusalem  will  warrant  the  expecta- 
tion that  Jerusalem  will  survive  until  its  people 
shall  reach  their  destination,  viz.,  the  pf*opagation 
of  the  name  of  Jehovah  and  the  deliverance  of  wor- 
shippers of  this  name. 

I.  The  foregoing  statements  take  the  second 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Joel,  as  that  chapter  stands 
in  the  revised  version.  The  statements  are  a  para- 
phrase of  this  version.  Several  events  answering  to 
these  statements  have  already  occurred.  That  out- 
pouring of  inspiration  which  began  in  the  Pente- 
costal season  told  of  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  ; 
the  response  to  St.  Peter's  call,  **  Save  yourselves 
from  this  crooked  generation,"  a  response  made  by 
three  thousand  of  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  three 
thousand  which  within  a  short  time  became  five 
thousand,  and  afterwards  many  ten  thousands ; 
the  fact  that  these  Israelites  went  everywhere 
preaching  the  word  of  deliverance  ;  the  consign- 
ing of  places  far  and  near,  and  among  these 
places  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  to  bloodshed  and 
desolation  ;  the  recurrence  of  wars  and  devasta- 
tions, from  age  to  age  in  history — have  fulfilled  a 
large  part  of  the  prophecy  of  Joel.     If  other  parts 


138  Visions  and  Narratives. 

of  the  prophecy,  the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the 
Lord,  and  that  turning  of  the  sun  into  darkness  and 
the  moon  into  blood,  which  is  to  precede  the  com- 
ing of  the  great  and  terrible  day,  are  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  of  the  Christian  era  still  future, 
this  fact  accords  well  with  utterances  of  Christ,"^ 
which  are  so  similar  to  Joel's  utterances  that  the 
similarity  can  hardly  be  accidental  :  "  The  sun 
shall  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her 
light  ....  and  then  shall  they  see  the  Son  of 
man  coming  in  the  clouds  with  great  power  and 
glory." 

2.  To  pass  from  the  verifications  which  the  pro- 
phecy of  Joel  has  received  or  awaits,  to  other  points 
of  interest,  let  me  premise  that  throughout  the 
prophecy  the  proper  name  of  the  God  of  Israel, 
the  peculiar  name  **  Jehovah,"  stands  where  our 
translators  have  placed  the  appellative  phrase 
"  the  Lord."  In  the  sentence  concerning  deliver- 
ance, the  original  runs,  "  Whosoever  shall  call 
upon  the  name  of  Jehov-ah  shall  be  delivered."  As 
the  prophets  denounce  insincere  worship,  I  assume 
that  the  "  calling  "  meant  in  Joel  is  such  an  invo- 
cation as  comes  of  a  practical  faith.  It  is  plain 
from  the  connection  that  by  the  being  '*  delivered," 
a  deliverance  in  the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the 

*  Mark  xiii.  24-26. 


The  Great  Day  of  the  Lord.  139 

Lord  is  the  thing  intended.  When  Joel  proceeds,  *'  In 
Mount  Zion  and  in  Jerusalem  there  shall  be  those 
that  escape,  as  the  Lord  hath  said,  and  among  the 
remnant"  shall  be  ''those  whom  the  Lord  shall 
call,"  he  introduces  this  statement  by  the  word 
*'  for,"  as  though  the  statement  was  meant  to  be 
understood  as  confirmatory  of  the  promise  just 
before  made.  But  where  are  we  to  find  the  revela- 
tion referred  to  in  the  clause  *'  as  the  Lord  hath 
said,"  the  clause  annexed  to  the  utterance  "There 
shall  be  those  that  escape."  If  the  escape  meant  is 
an  escape  from  the  extinction  with  which  the 
calamities  mentioned  in  other  predictions  had 
threatened  the  race  of  Israel,  the  revelation  is  to  be 
found  in  Old  Testament  declarations,  some  of 
which  make  mention  of  the  beneficent  result  in- 
tended for  the  escape.  Take,  for  example,  declara- 
tions of  Isaiah,*  that  the  cities  of  Israel  were  des- 
tined to  be  deprived  of  inhabitants,  and  that  not- 
withstanding the  desolation  of  the  country  and 
the  massacre  of  its  occupants,  this  people  would 
compare  with  a  tree,  the  stump  of  which  remains 
when  the  trunk  has  been  felled,  the  tree  and  the 
people  resembling  each  other  in  this  :  that  in  cir- 
cumstances which  threaten  to  be  deadly  to  them, 
both  may  survive  and  be  productive  of  an  outcome, 

*Isa.  vi.  11-13. 


140  Visions  and  Narratives. 

the  tree  of  shoots,  the  people  of  a  godly  progeny. 
Elsewhere  *  the  same  prophet,  after  renewing  his 
predictions  of  devastation  to  the  cities  of  Judah, 
writes,  **  The  remnant  that  is  escaped,  of  the  house 
of  Judah,  shall  again  take  root  downward  and  bear 
fruit  upward.  For  out  of  Jerusalem  shall  go  forth 
a  remnant,  and  out  of  Mount  Zion  they  that  shall 
escape.  The  zeal  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  shall  per- 
form this."  "  I  will  send  such  as  escape  of  them 
unto  the  nations  ....  that  have  not  heard  of 
my  fame,  and  they  shall  declare  my  glory  among 
the  nations,  f  In  days  to  come  shall  Jacob  take 
root  ;  Israel  shall  blossom  and  bud.  And  they  fill 
the  face  of  the  world  with  fruit."  :|:  Such  utterances 
serve  to  show  how  Joel  could  speak  of  the  escape 
of  a  remnant  of  Israel  as  an  escape  which  the  Lord 
had  destined.  The  declarations  are  plain  to  the 
point  that  the  race  of  Abraham  could  not  become 
extinct  until  it  had  accomplished  the  end  for  which 
it  was  elect,  the  blessing  of  all  the  families  of  the 
earth. 

These  utterances  tend  to  show,  also,  how  the 
prophet  after  the  promise,  "Whosoever  shall  call 
upon  the  name  of  Jehovah  shall  be  delivered," 
could  think  it  necessary  to  add  the  declaration  that 
the  remnant  destined  to  survive  the  calamities  of 

*  Isa.  xxxvii.  31.  f  Isa.  Ixvi.  19.  |xxvii.  6. 


The  Great  Day  of  the  Lord.  141 

the  race  was  to  include  persons  **  whom  the  Lord 
their  God  should  call."  A  class  of  persons  not 
divinely  called  neither  would  nor  could  so  blossom 
and  bud  as  to  fill  the  world  with  fruit.  Joel's 
promise  and  the  declaration  annexed  thereto  are 
coherent,  if  the  latter  indicates  the  agency  by  the 
instrumentality  of  which  the  name  of  Jehovah  was 
to  become  known  and  invocable — known  and  invo- 
cable  by  the  "  whosoever  "  in  the  interest  of  whom 
the  utterance  going  before  had  been  made.  Other- 
wise the  discourse  is  incoherent,  and  the  word 
"for"  in  the  thirty-second  verse  is  futile. 

3.  The  interdependence  of  the  prophets  is  a  point 
of  interest.  No  prophet  seems  to  have  been  inde- 
pendent of  other  prophets.  The  Spirit  spake  by 
David,  yet  David  sought  counsel  from  Nathan.  It 
was  through  the  writings  of  Jeremiah  that  the 
prophet  Daniel  came  to  know  that  the  Lord  would 
accomplish  seventy  years  in  the  desolations  of 
Jerusalem.  In  consonance  with  such  facts  the 
prophecy  of  Joel  does  not  give  a  plenary  statement 
concerning  the  inspiration  which  was  vouchsafed 
on  the  first  Whitsunday  ;  that  is  to  say,  does  not 
include  in  his  statement  the  great  things  which 
this  inspiration  involved — the  uprooting  of  the  pre- 
judices of  the  apostles,  the  enlightening  of  their 
minds,    the    "disannulling   of   the    commandment 


142  Visions  mid  Narrati^'es. 

going  before  and  the  bringing  in  of  a  better  hope." 
The  prophet  tells  so  much  as  had  been  revealed  to 
him,  and  tells  no  more.  Joel  may  have  been  with- 
out the  knowledge  that  on  the  great  and  terrible 
day  of  which  he  writes  the  Messiah  would  be  the 
judge,  and  that  the  judgment  then  to  take  place 
would  bring  about  consequences  belonging  to 
another  stage  of  existence.  Certainly  Joel's  pro- 
phecy is  not  explicit  to  such  points.  The  like  of 
this  acknowledgment  ought  to  be  made  with 
respect  to  other  prophets.  No  prophet  claims  to 
know  everything,  though  each,  when  he  says 
**  Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  speaks  with  divine  author- 
ity. In  the  representations  concerning  the  future 
which  the  planner  made  by  means  of  Old  Testa- 
ment seers,  the  case  is  as  when  an  architect  exhibits 
several  draughts,  one  showing  the  inside  of  the 
edifice  which  he  proposes  to  erect,  another  showing 
the  outside,  one  showing  how  the  building  will 
look  when  seen  from  one  point  of  view,  another 
showing  its  aspect  from  an  opposite  standpoint. 
Joel  says  much  of  the  glories  of  the  time  to  come, 
nothing  of  the  Mediatorial  Person  who  is  to  wield 
the  sceptre  of  the  coming  kingdom.  Jeremiah 
predicts  the  king  as  well  as  the  kingdom,  but  says 
nothing  of  the  suffering  of  the  king.  A  psalm 
describes  a  sufferer  who  on  the  coming  of  relief  from 


TJie  Great  Day  of  tJic  Lord.  143 

suffering,  will  make  a  banquet  which  will  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  meek  from  the  first,  and  soon  or  late 
will  be  accepted  in  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  but  this 
psalm  says  nothing  of  expiation  as  wrought,  or  of 
priesthood  </,s  exercised  by  the  sufferer.  Another 
psalm  recognizes  a  personage  who  is  both  a  king 
and  a  priest,  but  does  not  disclose  the  fact  that 
this  priest  would  offer  up  himself.  A  vision  of 
Zechariah  represents  the  king  as  coming  to  Jerusa- 
lem seated  upon  an  ass  colt.  A  vision  of  Daniel 
represents  him  as  coming  to  the  ancient  of  days 
upon  the  clouds  of  heaven.  No  vision  combines 
the  two  exhibitions.  Even  in  the  New  Testament 
analogous  facts  occur,  as  when  St.  Paul  says,* 
**  Now  go  I  to  Jerusalem,  not  knowing  what  shall 
befall  me  there,  save  that  the  Holy  Ghost  witness- 
eth  in  every  place  that  bonds  and  afflictions  await 
me."  The  history  seems  to  show  that  the  witness- 
ing meant  is  not  from  within  the  apostle,  but  is 
such  as  reaches  him  through  the  medium  of  con- 
temporary prophets.  Nay,  this  apostle  declares 
that  the  knowledge  he  possesses,  prophetic  as  it  is, 
compares  with  the  knowledge  to  which  he  looks 
forward,  as  that  which  is  in  part  compares  with 
that  which  is  in  whole — as  the  partial  compares 
with  the  perfect — as  the  thought  and  understand- 

*  Acts  XX.  23 . 


144  Visions  and  Narratives. 

ing  of  a  child  compares  with  the  thought  and  un- 
derstanding which  the  child  reaches  when  he 
arrives  at  manhood.*  If  a  Christian  apostle's  pro- 
phetic knowledge  was  to  be  thus  eclipsed  in  the 
life  beyond  the  grave,  what  wonder  if  the  knowl- 
edge of  a  single  Old  Testament  prophet  needed 
to  be  collated  with  the  knowledge  of  fellow  pro- 
phets, in  order  to  form  the  mind  to  the  true  con- 
ception of  the  things  of  the  New  Testament  time  ? 
If  the  gift  of  prophecy  had  come'of  the  will  of  man, 
one  or  other  of  the  prophets  would  no  doubt  have 
depicted  the  things  of  the  future  with  that  com- 
pleteness in  which  men  delight.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  no  further,  if  they 
spake  in  such  a  way  that  when  not  thus  moved 
they  abstained  from  prophesying  and  sought  in- 
formation from  other  prophets,  David  from  Nathan, 
Daniel  from  Jeremiah  ;  no  prophecy  of  Scripture  is  of 
private  interpretation  ;  no  prophecy  admits  of  being 
interpreted  by  itself.  We  must  compare  Scripture 
with  Scripture,  Zechariah  with  Daniel,  Jeremiah  with 
Isaiah,  in  order  to  obtain  such  a  conception  of  the 
scheme  of  the  Inspirer  as  will  approach  to  compre- 
hensiveness. We  must  compare  Joel's  mention  of 
the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord  with  the  revela- 

*  I  Cor.  xiii.  9-12. 


TJie  Great  Day  of  the  Lord.  145 

tion  made  by  a  prophet  who  lived  much  later  in  the 
Old  Testament  time,  viz.,  the  tidings  that  many  of 
them  that  slept  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  should 
awake,  some  to  everlasting  life  and  some  to  shame 
and  everlasting  contempt.  Bring  together  the 
draughts  of  the  prophetic  draughtsmen,  in  such 
manner  that  you  may  collate  the  papers  one  with 
another  ;  judge  of  no  aspect  of  the  structure  with- 
out taking  other  aspects  into  contemplation  ; 
think  of  the  kingly,  the  suffering,  the  witnessing, 
the  priestly  sides  of  the  edifice  which  was  to  rise, 
if  you  would  reach  that  conception  of  New  Testa- 
ment times  which  the  Old  Testament  authorized. 
Failing  to  use  this  collating  method,  you  will  as  an 
interpreter  be  in  many  dangers. 

4.  With  regard  to  time.  It  has  been  said  by 
writers  that  time  is  not  an  element  in  prophecy, 
and  that  prophets  saw  the  events  of  the  future  as 
the  naked  eye  beholds  the  stars,  descrying  their 
existence  and  the  severalty  which  obtains  among 
them,  but  not  their  distance  from  each  other.  The 
former  part  of  this  statement  is  not  universally  true. 
Joel  makes  express  mention  of  time  when,  passing 
from  the  secular  blessings  which  he  had  predicted 
for  Israel,  he  writes,  *'  It  shall  come  to  pass  after- 
ward that  I  will  pour  out,"  etc.  "  Afterward  "  cer- 
tainly imports  for  the  outpouring  predicted  a  pos- 


146  Visions  and  Narratives, 

teriority  in  time,  viz.,  a  posteriority  to  the  rains, 
fertility  and  plenty  he  had  just  before  (within  the 
chapter)  promised  to  the  Holy  Land.  In  like 
manner  he  tells  of  a  priority  in  time,  when  he 
places  the  obscuration  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
before  the  coming  of  the  day  of  the  Lord. 

Nevertheless  much  of  the  statement  is  borne 
out  by  the  phenomena  with  which  we  meet. 
In  '*  The  Burden  of  Babylon  "  *  little  or  nothing  is 
said  of  an  interval  destined  to  elapse  between  the 
conquest  which  was  to  befall  the  place  and  the  total 
desolation  which  was  to  consummate  its  sad  lot. 
The  prophetic  eye  sees  only  the  beginning  and  the 
completion  of  the  decline  of  the  city  ;  although 
many  centuries  intervened  between  the  downfall  of 
Babylon  under  the  power  of  Cyrus,  King  of  Persia, 
and  the  total  subversion  which  the  desolations  of 
the  great  city  now  exhibit.  Babylon,  the  glory  of 
kingdoms,  the  beauty  of  the  Chaldean's  pride,  is  as 
when  God  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  For 
generation  after  generation  it  has  not  been  dwelt 
in.  Its  site  is  a  ruin,  but  it  did  not  become  such  for 
many  hundreds  of  years  after  the  downfall  the  city 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  Cyrus.  Its  downfall  paved 
the  way  for  the  restoration  of  Israelites  to  their 
native  soil.     Its  total   ruin  accredits  Isaiah's  other 

*  Isa.  xiii. 


The  Great  Day  of  the  Lord.  147 

predictions.  The  occurrences  which  intervened  did 
not  come,  and  for  his  purposes  did  not  need  to 
come,  within  the  purview  of  the  prophet. 

Similar  was  the  purview  vouchsafed  to  Joel ;  similar, 
certainly,  was  the  purview  he  gave  to  his  readers, 
when  he  wrote  the  prediction  we  are  considering. 
He  tells  nothing  in  relation  to  the  length  of  the 
time  which  was  to  intervene  between  the  gift  of  the 
secular  blessings  and  the  gift  of  the  widespread  in- 
spiration. Eighteen  hundred  years  have  elapsed 
since  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  which  took  place 
a  few  days  after  Christ's  ascension  :  The  coming  of 
the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord  has  not  yet 
occurred.  Yet  Joel  makes  no  mention  of  a  difference 
in  time  between  the  two  events  (the  inspiration  and 
the  coming),  except  the  statement  that  the  out- 
pouring and  the  events  next  told  of  were  to  take 
place  antecedently  to  the  transcendent  day.  A  man 
standing  on  ground  comparatively  low  may  see  in 
the  prospect  which  presents  itself  mountain  after 
mountain,  one  more  distant  than  another,  the  sec- 
ond higher  than  the  first,  and  the  third  transcend- 
ing the  second.  He  may  see  them  all,  and  yet  fail 
to  see  and  even  fail  to  imagine  the  plains  and 
fruitful  fields  which  lie  between  the  several  ridees. 
Joel's  vision  of  time  may  have  been  like  such  a 
man's  vision  of  place. 


148  Visions  and  Narratives. 

That  prophets  had  revelations  to  the  effect  that 
their  ministry  was  not  for  their  own  benefit,  and 
that  these  seers  were  curious  concerning  the  chron- 
ology of  the  future  is  expressly  said  by  St.  Peter.* 
"  The  prophets  searched  diligently,  searching  .  .  . 
what  manner  of  time  the  Spirit  of  Christ  .  .  .  did 
point  unto,  when  it  testified  beforehand  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  and  the  glories  which  should  follow. 
To  whom  it  was  revealed  that  not  unto  themselves 
but  unto  you  they  did  minister." 

5.  Something  needs  to  be  said  with  regard  to 
the  treatment  the  apostles  give  to  *'  that  which  is 
written  by  the  prophet  Joel."  That  St.  Paul,  in  the 
passage  f  where  he  quotes  the  place  in  Joel  with 
which  we  have  to  do,  interprets  the  "deliverance  " 
as  the  Christian  salvation,  the  "'  whosoever "  as 
including  the  heathen  as  well  as  Israelites,  and  the 
invocation  of  the  incomparable  name  as  a  thing 
which  must  be  preceded  by  the  hearing  and  conse- 
quently by  the  preaching  of  this  name,  hardly  needs 
to  be  insisted. 

But  what  of  the  treatment  %  which  St.  Peter 
gives  to  the  passage  of  which  I  am  writing  }  On  the 
day  of  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  he  declared  the 
outpouring  to  be  the  thing  which  Joel  had  spoken  ; 
and  the  apostle  proceeded  to  quote   sentences  of 

♦IPeteri.  10-12.  f  Rom.  x.  11-14.  J  Acts  ii.  16-21. 


The  Great  Day  of  the  Lord.  149 

the  prophecy.  In  so  quoting  he  substituted  *'/;/ 
the  last  days  it  shall  come  to  pass  "  in  place  of  the 
words,  "  it  shall  come  to  pass  afterward!'  The 
substitution  is  easy  to  be  accounted  for,  if  the  days 
meant  are  to  be  reckoned  from  the  times  in  which 
Joel  flourished.  The  prevailing  custom  of  the  Old 
Testament  prophets  was  to  predict  an  event  or 
series  of  events  due  in  the  nearer  future,  and  to 
proceed  from  the  mention  of  these  occurrences  to 
the  mention  of  events  which  were  to  occur  in  the 
more  distant  future.  The  passage  from  the  one 
mention  to  the  other  is  commonly  introduced  by 
the  phrase  *'  the  last  days."  This  phrase  serves  to 
distinguish  the  ultimate  from  the  ulterior,  the  latest 
from  the  later  of  the  periods  which  came  within 
the  vision  of  the  prophet.  Joel,  after  foretelling 
rain,  fertility,  and  plenty  for  days  comparatively 
near  to  the  time  at  which  he  wrote,  distinguishes 
from  these  days  other  periods,  periods  compara- 
tively remote,  by  prefixing  the  phrase  "  afterward  " 
to  the  mention  of  the  latter  series  of  days.  Thus 
this  phrase  and  the  phrase  *'  In  the  last  days  " 
came  to  be  convertible  terms. 

The  New  Testament  writers  regard  the  ultimate 
future  announced  by  Joel  and  other  seers  as  having 
already  begun  in  the  first  age  of  Christianity,  though 
not  as  having  been  brought  in  that  age  to  its  close 


150  Visions  and  Narratives. 

or  culmination.  An  old  phrase  sometimes  con- 
tinues to  be  used  after  it  has  ceased  to  be  strictly 
appropriate.  A  corporation  keeps  its  original  title 
long  after  this  title  has  ceased  to  be  descriptive  of 
the  business  to  which  it  now  devotes  itself.  A  firm 
retains  its  old  name  when  no  person  mentioned  in 
that  name  survives.  So  the  old  phrase,  **  the  last 
days,"  sacred  by  reason  of  its  origin,  and  venerable 
by  reason  of  long  use,  continued  to  be  employed 
even  when  the  days  meant  were  identical  with  the 
period  in  which  the  speaker  lived.  Take,  for  ex- 
ample, the  diction  at  II  Tim.  iii.  1-6. 

Here  Timothy  is  given  to  know  that  the  times 
for  which  so  much  of  blessing  had  been  predicted 
by  prophets  were  not  to  be  in  all  respects  halcyon 
days  ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  grievous  times  were  to 
coincide  with  these  days  ;  and  this  intimation  in- 
troduces a  precept  to  the  effect  that  Timothy 
should  turn  away  from  the  evil  doers  the  last  days 
were  to  produce,  and  the  precept  is  followed  by  a 
characterization  of  contemporaries  of  Paul  and 
Timothy,  as  belonging  to  this  class  of  evil  doers. 
One  cannot  see  how  the  precept  and  the  character- 
ization connect  with  the  introductory  intimation, 
unless  the  writer  of  the  epistle,  the  person  addressed 
and  the  persons  characterized,  lived  within  the 
period  of  *'  the  last  days  ;  "  that  is    to   say,  unless 


The  Great  Day  of  the  Lord.  151 

the  last  days,  however  long  they  might  continue, 
were  considered  as  being  already  present  when 
Paul  and  Timothy  lived.  **  Know  this,  that  in  the 
last  days  grievous  times  shall  come  .  .  .  men  shall 
be  lovers  of  self,  lovers  of  money  .  .  .  from  ^  these 
also  turn  away  ;  ...  of  these  are  they  that  creep 
into  houses  and  take  captive  silly  women."  Joel's 
'*  afterward"  introduces  the  whole  period  from  the 
Pentecostal  inspiration  to  the  great  and  terrible 
day  of  the  Lord,  and  St.  Peter's  "  last  days  "  cover 
the  same  ground.  The  interval  meant  had  begun 
when  the  apostles  spoke  and  wrote.  It  will  not 
end  until  time  shall  be  no  more. 

In  answer  to  the  inquiry  which  the  crowd  at 
Jerusalem  addressed  to  St.  Peter  at  the  end  of  his 
speech,  the  apostle  said,  "  To  you  is  the  promise 
and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  that  are  afar  off, 
even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call  unto 
Him."t  The  apostolic  speaker  must  have  meant  by 
"  the  promise  "  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  spoken 
of  by  Joel,  and  the  "  receiving  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  just  promised  by  himself  In  declaring 
that  the  promise  extended  to  so  many  as  God 
should  call,  the  apostle  had  in  mind  the  prophetic 
assurance  that  among  the  remnant  in  Jerusalem 
there  should   be  **  those   whom    the   Lord    should 

*  Revised  version.  f  Acts  ii.  37-40. 


152  Visions  and  Naj'ratives. 

call."  In  the  exhortation,  **  Save  yourselves  from 
this  crooked  generation,"  the  apostle  characterizes 
the  bulk  of  the  Israelites  by  means  of  a  character- 
ization* applied  by  Moses  to  this  people,  and  either 
has  ceased  to  make  use  of  the  prophecy  he  has 
quoted  or  he  explains  the  deliverance  expressed  in 
the  clause,  "  Whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name 
of  Jehovah  shall  be  delivered,"  as  meaning  no  less 
than  salvation,  a  salvation  in  character  from  the 
category  of  the  crooked  or  untoward  ;  that  is  to  say 
the  salvation  which  is  to  be  made  consummate  in 
the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord. 

When  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
appends  to  his  account  of  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and 
of  days  which  followed,  the  statement,  *'  The  Lord 
added,  day  by  day,  those  that  were  being  saved,"  f 
he  means  that  persons  in  Jerusalem  were  compliant 
with  the  exhortation  ''Save  yourselves  from  this 
crooked  generation,"  and,  complying,  ceased  to  be 
participants  in  the  character  and  lot  of  the  mass  of 
Israel.  So  ceasing  they  were  made  constituents  of 
the  infant  church  of  Christ.  They  experienced  the 
deliverance  of  which  Joel  had  written  ;  a  deliver- 
ance which,  after  beginning  in  their  own  souls,  was 
to  be  preached  by  them  in  countries  where  the 
name  of  Jehovah  had  been  unknown. 

*  DeiiU  xxxii,  5,  20.  f  Actsii.  47,  revised  version. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  KINGDOM  TO   BE  SET  UP  BY  THE  GOD  OF  HEAVEN. 
Daniel  II.,  VII.,  IX. 

The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  often  understood  as 
meaning-  simply  and  solely  the  future  condition  of 
the  people  of  God.  But  the  phrase  is  sometimes 
insusceptible  of  this  signification,  as,  for  example, 
Avhen  the  kingdom  is  compared  to  a  net  cast  into 
the  sea,  gathering  things  worthless  to  the  fisher- 
man as  well  as  fish  of  the  kind  desired — a  net  from 
which  when  drawn  to  shore  the  worthless  contents 
were  cast  away.  The  history  of  the  phrase,  "  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  will  do  much  toward  the 
illustration  of  its  meaning. 

I.     The  history  is  as  follows  : 

Nebuchadnezzar,   king  of  Babylon,  has  a  vision. 

A  colossal  statue    stood  upon  feet  composed  partly 

of  iron,   partly  of  clay  or  earthenware.     The  legs 

were  wholly  of  iron,  the  belly  and  thighs  of  brass, 

the  breast  and  arms  of  silver,  the  head  of  gold.     A 

153 


154  Visions  and  Narratives. 

stone  cut  out  without  hands  struck  the  fragile  feet 
of  the  statue  and  demolished  the  whole.  The  iron, 
the  clay,  the  brass,  the  silver  and  the  gold  were 
broken  in  pieces,  became  chaff,  as  it  were,  and  the 
wind  carried  them  away.  No  place  was  found  for 
them.  The  stone  that  smote  the  image  became  a 
great  mountain  and  filled  the  whole  ea.th.  The 
prophet  Daniel  resided  in  Babylon  at  the  time. 
Nebuchadnezzar  had  been  troubled  by  the  dream, 
but  was  unable  to  state  its  particulars.  Daniel 
recited  the  particulars.  The  monarch  seems  to 
have  readily  identified  the  statement  and  the  vision, 
the  one  with  the  other.  The  thing  seen  had  come 
back  to  his  mind,  and  the  main  point  now  was  the 
meaning  of  the  thing.  To  this,  the  interpretation, 
the  prophet  proceeded  without  discrediting  the  king's 
belief  that  the  dream  was  symbolical.  Monarchies 
were  to  follow  one  another  in  time,  as  in  the  statue 
metals  followed  one  another  in  place.  In  the  days  of 
the  kings  belonging  to  this  succession  of  mon- 
archies, the  days  of  one  or  other  of  these  kings,  the 
God  of  Heaven  was  to  set  up  a  kingdom  which 
should  never  be  destroyed,  and  in  which  the  sov- 
ereignty should  never  be  relinquished  to  a  foreign 
dynasty.  The  new  kingdom  was  to  be  world- 
wide and  everlasting,  though  not  erected  nor 
extended  by  human  hands,  and  in   its  beginnings 


TJic  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         155 

comparable   rather    to    a    little   stone    than    to    a 
rock. 

In  the  seventh  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Daniel 
another  vision  is  mentioned.  The  sea,  the  waves 
of  which  are  in  Scripture  an  image  of  the  "mad- 
ness of  the  people,"  is  the  scene  which  first  presents 
itself  to  the  view  of  the  prophet.  From  the 
agitated  sea  four  beasts,  one  after  another,  emerge. 
A  judgment  ensues.  Under  this  judgment  the 
mastery  the  beasts  had  possessed  comes  to  an  end, 
and  another  figure,  not  a  mere  animal,  but  a  person 
with  human  qualities,  appears  upon  the  scene.  A 
mastery  which  is  destined  to  become  universal  is 
consigned  to  this  person.  '^  I  saw  in  the  night 
visions,  and  behold  there  cam.e  with  the  clouds  of 
heaven  one  like  untoa  son  of  man.  He  came  even 
unto  an  Ancient  of  days.  And  there  was  given  him 
dominion  and  glory  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  the 
peoples,  nations  and  languages  should  serve  him. 
His  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion,  which 
shall  not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  that  which 
shall  not  be  destroyed."  Much  in  the  vision  may 
require  future  developments  in  history  to  serve  as 
a  key  to  parts  of  the  prophecy,  especially  to  the 
parts  which  speak  of  outgrowths  from  the  head  of 
the  fourth  beast.  The  judgment  told  of,  seen  as  it 
was  by  a  seer,  may  in  its   realization  run  through 


156  Visions  and  Narratives. 

ages,  some  of  which  have  not  yet  begun.  Never- 
theless one  thing  is  incontestable,  viz.,  that  a  new 
kingdom,  a  new  system  of  persons  and  things, 
headed  by  a  king,  was  according  to  Daniel  to  arise 
under  the  action  of  the  Ancient  of  days.  The  rep- 
resentation concurs  with  that  which  had  been  made 
by  Daniel  in  the  exposition  of  the  future  which  the 
seer  had  given  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  viz.,  in  the 
mention  of  a  kingdom  superhuman  in  its  origin  and 
destined  to  fill  the  whole  earth.  But  the  later 
vision  goes  beyond  the  earlier  in  this,  that  it  intro- 
duces a  person  intermediary  between  the  Universal 
Father  and  the  nations  of  mankind  ;  a  person  de- 
scribed as  like  unto  a  son  of  man  ;  thus  described, 
perhaps,  because  it  was  intended  to  give  him  a 
characterization  which  would  contrast  his  qualities 
with  those  of  the  previous  kings,  who  had  appeared 
in  the  vision  as  beasts.  He  appears  to  be  the 
same  as  is  exhibited  in  Daniel's  ninth  chapter  as 
"the  anointed  one  (Messiah),  the  prince." 

The  Book  of  Daniel,  as  quoted  above,  warranted 
the  expectation  that  a  kingdom  to  be  established 
by  the  Divine  Being  would  arise.  A  similar  ex- 
pectation was  authorized  by  the  many  passages  of 
the  Old  Testament  which  represented  the  headship 
of  David  over  the  chosen  people,  as  about  to  revive, 
or  more  than  revive,  in  the  person  of  a  descendant 


The  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         157 

of  David,  a  headship  destined  to  extend  eventually 
over  the  whole  world  and  to  last  until  the  end  of 
time.  Such  an  expectation  was  current  in  Israel 
when  Christ  came.  The  ministry  of  John  the 
Baptist  began  in  the  early  part  of  the  Christian  era, 
and  a  principal  part  of  this  ministry  consisted  in 
the  announcement,  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand."  The  fact  that  the  Baptist  does  not  explain 
his  phrase — that  he  says  the  kingdom — implies  that 
an  order  of  things  which  might  be  thus  denomi- 
nated was  an  idea  known  to  the  people  addressed. 
Shortly  after  John  had  made  this  announce- 
ment, Jesus  came  preaching,  **  The  time  is  fulfilled 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand."  The  expec- 
tation thus  taken  for  granted  as  already  existing, 
appears  on  Jewish  lips  in  the  exclamation,  "  Blessed 
is  he  that  shall  eat  bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God." 
Christ  was  asked  "  when  the  kingdom  of  God 
should  come,"  and  on  one  of  His  approaches  to 
Jerusalem  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighborhood 
"  thought  that  the  kingdom  of  God  would  immedi- 
ately appear."  These  things  occurred  in  circum- 
stances' which  hardly  allow  us  to  believe  that  the 
kingdom  meant  was  the  future  state  of  human  ex- 
istence. Such  facts  make  it  plain  that  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  kingdom  was  expected  ;  that  this 
idea   was  familiar  to   the  Jewish  mind  ;    and    that 


158  Visions  and  Narratives. 

it  was  embodied  in  the  phrases,  ''  The  kingdom 
of  God,"  ''  The  kingdom  of  heaven."  The  two 
phrases  seem  to  be  identical  in  meaning,  and  both 
of  them  to  be  abbreviations  of  Daniel's  utterance, 
♦'  The  God  of  heaven  shall  set  up  a  kingdom  which 
shall  never  be  destroyed."  "  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  "  is  the  usual  phrase  in  St.  Matthew,  and 
occurs  in  the  first  Gospel  only,  other  evangelists 
in  the  parallel  places  using  as  their  phrase  "  The 
kingdom  of  God." 

It  is  no  less  evident  that  the  kingdom  to  be 
established  was  looked  for  with  a  kind  of  expectation 
which  needed  to  be  rectified.  Though  the  kingdom 
never  to  be  destroyed  was  to  be  set  up  by  the  God 
of  heaven  ;  though  the  stone  which  was  the  symbol 
of  this  regime  had  been  cut  out  without  hands,  a 
representation  which  could  mean  hardly  less  than 
the  absence  of  human  agency  ;  though  the  like 
unto  a  Son  of  man  approached  the  Ancient  of  days, 
not  as  upheld  by  men,  but  upon  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  in  order  to  receive  investiture  with  the  gift 
of  dominion  ;  the  multitude  after  the  miracle  of  the 
loaves  and  fishes,  were  about  to  come  and  "  take 
Jesus  by  force  to  make  Him  king."*  A  general 
belief  seems  to  have  obtained  that  when  the  head 
of  the   kingdom    appeared   His  presence   on  earth 

*John  vi. 


The  Kingdovi  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         159 

would  be  uninterrupted  by  death  or  other  cause. 
When  Christ,  *  "  signifying  by  what  manner  of 
death  He  should  die,"  said  that  He  would  "  be  lifted 
up"  from  the  earth,  the  multitude  answered,  "We 
have  heard  out  of  the  law  that  the  Christ  abideth 
forever.  How  sayest  thou  the  Son  of  man  must  be 
lifted  up  }  Who  is  this  Son  of  man  } "  Even  the 
disciples  of  our  Lord  needed  to  be  apprised  of  the 
fact  that  he  was  to  become  invisible.  They  needed 
to  .be  told,  "■  The  days  will  come  when  ye  shall 
desire  to  see  one  of  the  days  of  the  Son  of  man  and 
shall  not  see  it."  t  Jews  seem  to  have  believed  that 
*' the  kingdom  "  when  Christ  preached  was  still  in 
every  sense  future,  and  would  be  of  observable  com- 
ing ;  that  it  would  be  consummate  from  the  begin- 
ning ;  that  the  Christ's  first  arrival  on  earth  would  be 
with  supernatural  exhibition  of  supremacy,  such  as 
will  attend  the  second  coming  of  Jesus  ;  or  that  the 
presence  begun  by  the  first  and  only  arrival  would 
be  with  the  state  and  circumstance  which  attend 
the  potentates  of  the  earth. 

That  the  dominion  of  the  Christ  would  include 
at  first  but  a  few  disciples,  and  would  be  co-exten- 
sive with  mankind  in  the  event  only  ;  that  it  would 
be  for  ages  exercised  invisibly  in  heaven,  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father,  the  Jews    seem  not    to 

*  John  xii.  32-34.  f  Luke  xvii.  22. 


i6o  Visio7is  and  Narratives. 

have  imagined.  Though  the  symbolic  stone  grew 
to  be  a  mountain  in  the  event  only,  not  at  its 
original  appearance — though  in  vision  Jehovah  had 
said  unto  the  Lord  of  David,  "  Sit  thou  at  my  right 
hand  until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool," 
Jews  appear  not  to  have  believed  that  such  repre- 
sentations authorized  an  expectation  that  the  Lord 
of  David  would  be  withdrawn  from  the  earth — 
would  be  invisible  and  in  heaven — during  an  inter- 
val of  time  which  would  reach  its  end  when  the 
Father  had  put  His  enemies  under  His  feet,  and  not 
before — r.n  interval  which  might  last  for  centuries. 

Unless  you  bear  in  mind  that  the  kingdom  was 
conceived  erroneously — was  expected  with  error  in 
the  mode  of  conception — you  will  not  comprehend 
the  parables  in  which  small  beginnings  contrast 
with  a  large  outcome  ;  for  example,  the  parable  of 
a  grain  of  mustard  seed  which  grew  to  be  a  tree, 
and  the  parable  of  leaven  which  a  woman  hid  in 
three  measures  of  meal.  Nor  will  you  compre- 
hend how  the  statement  *  that  the  word  of  the 
kingdom  would  depend  for  productiveness  upon 
the  state  of  the  soul  which  it  reached,  like  seed 
which  depends  for  productiveness  upon  the  charac- 
ter of  the  soil  where  it  is  sown,  how  this  statement 
could  be  represented  as  belonging  to  the  category 

*  Matt.  xiii.  10-19. 


The  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         i6i 

of  the  mysterious,  as  among  ''  the  mysteries  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  A  teaching  of  this  descrip- 
tion requires  no  explanation  for  those  who  have  been 
brought  up  under  Christ's  doctrine.  But  if  such  state- 
ments were  made  to  a  people  to  whom  they  were 
the  opposite  of  obvious,  and  to  whose  long  cherished 
conceptions  they  were  irreconcilable,  they  might 
well  be  denominated  mysterious,  in  the  sense  in 
which  this  word  is  used  in  the  Scriptures,  viz.,  with 
the  intention  to  characterize  a  thing  as  unknown, 
unexpected  and  requiring  to  be  revealed — rather 
than  as  having  the  quality  of  incomprehensibility. 

2.  There  remains  the  important  question,  How 
is  the  kingdom  set  up  by  the  God  of  heaven  ex- 
hibited in  the  New  Testament  .-*  How  ought  the 
dominion  given  by  the  Ancient  of  days  to  the  Son 
of  man  to  be  conceived  of.? 

A  kingdom  is  a  system  of  persons  and  things  in 
which  an  individual  is  supreme.  The  persons  are 
the  king  and  his  subjects.  Among  the  things  are 
the  realm,  enactments  to  regulate  the  conduct  of 
the  subjects,  and  such  a  management  of  events  and 
influences  as  brings  about  a  regime.  **  The  king- 
dom of  God  and  of  Christ  "  is  simply  the  Christian 
system.  But  *'  the  king  "  seems  to  be  never  absent 
from  the  biblical  idea,  not  even  in  the  apothegm, 
*'  The  kingdom  of  God  is  righteousness  and  peace." 


1 62  Visions  and  Narratives. 

The  identity  implied  in  this  utterance  is  an  iden- 
tity in  effect  or  the  like  of  effect,  as  when  we  say, 
**  Knowledge  is  power."  So  Scripture  says,  *'  This 
is  life  eternal,  that  they  should  know  Thee,  the 
only  true  God,"  although  life  and  knowledge  are 
not  identical  in  all  respects.  The  Universal 
Father  appears  in  the  New  Testament  correspond- 
ently  with  the  appearance  of  the  Ancient  of  days 
in  Daniel,  as  the  person  who  originates  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  head  of  the  kingdom  ;  the  Son  of  man 
as  the  person  to  whom  the  supremacy  is  given  and 
by  whom  it  is  exercised.  The  supremacy  is  medi- 
atorial, and  is  to  continue  '*  until  He  shall  deliver 
up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father  "* — a  goal 
perhaps  the  same  as  that  which  will  be  reached 
when  the  mystery  of  God  shall  be  finished,"  and 
"  time  shall  be  no  longer."  t 

In  the  declarations  "  All  things  are  delivered  unto 
me  by  the  Father,"  *'  All  power  is  given  unto  me 
in  heaven  and  in  earth,"  *'My  Father  hath  ap- 
pointed ]me  a  kingdom,"  the  Son  of  God,  in  His 
incarnate  capacity,  claimed  individual  supremacy. 
In  various  ways  He  exercised  this  supremacy.  By 
the  tidings  *'  the  kingdom  of  God  is  come  nigh 
unto  you,"  He  invited  persons  to  become  His 
subjects.     By   baptizing    persons     He    recognized 

*  I  Cor.  XV.  24.  t  Rev.  x.  6,  7. 


TJie  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         163 

them  as  having  the  quality  of  membership  in  the 
system  He  erected.  By  the  declaration,  "  The  law 
and  the  prophets  were  until  John  :  From  that  time 
the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is  preached," 
He  pronounced  the  ministry  of  St.  John  the 
Baptist  to  be  the  goal  at  which  the  Old  Testament 
regime  had  ended  its  career  and  whereat  the  regime 
predicted  by  Daniel  had  begun.  Accordingly  He 
legislated  anew.  He  pronounced  *'  Not  that  which 
goeth  into  the  mouth  defileth  a  man,"  "  The  hour 
now  is  when  neither  in  this  mountain  nor  in  Jeru- 
salem shall  men  worship  the  Father,"  and  by  these 
edicts  He  annulled  for  the  people  of  His  system 
the  Levitical  distinction  between  clean  and  un- 
clean meats,  and  annulled  the  command  that  all 
male  Israelites,  three  times  in  every  year,  should 
worship  at  Jerusalem.  He  ordained  a  like* ''dis- 
annulling of  the  commandment  going  before,"  when 
he  said,"  Moses,  for  the  hardness  of  your  hearts,  suf- 
fered you  to  put  away  your  wives,  but  I  say  unto  you 
that  every  one  that  putteth  away  his  wife,  save  for 
the  cause  of  fornication,  maketh  her  an  adulteress." 
There  were  other  things  appertaining  to  the  new 
system  ;  not  the  least  of  these  things  was  the  ordi- 
nance which  instituted  a  supper  commemorative  of 
the  5ufforing  which  was  declared  by  the  Head  of 
•  Heb.  vii.  18. 


164  Visions  and  Narratives. 

the  kingdom  to  be  His   destination  in   the  early- 
future. 

That  the  kingdom  was  to  have  an  existence 
before  its  glorification,  and  that  the  system  was  to 
exhibit  the  church,  the  company  of  subjects  of  the 
King,  as  one  of  its  component  parts,  were  truths 
implied,  not  only  in  the  parable  of  the  net  cast  into 
the  sea,  but  in  the  comparison  of  the  kingdom  to  a 
field  in  which  the  owner  had  sown  good  seed  only, 
but  an  enemy  had  sown  tares  ;  a  comparison,  the 
moral  of  which  is  declared  in  the  statement,  "  The 
Son  of  man  shall  send  forth  His  angels,  and  they 
shall  gather  out  of  His  kingdom  all  stumbling- 
blocks  and  them  that  do  iniquity."  How  can  per- 
sons be  gathered  at  Christ's  second  coming  out  of 
His  kingdom  unless  this  kingdom  exists  before  His 
second  coming }  Not  only  the  antagonism  of  the 
new  system  to  the  powers  of  darkness,  but  the 
manifestation  of  this  system  as  a  thing  already 
present  at  the  time  when  Messiah  the  Prince  minis- 
tered upon  earth,  was  taught  when  Christ  said,  **  If 
I,  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  cast  out  devils,  then  is  the 
kingdom  of  God  come  upon  you."  The  God  of 
Heaven  had  erected  the  kingdom  which  should 
never  be  destroyed — Christ  declared  it  ready  for 
accessions — the  regime  had  begun  and  invited 
aliens  to  become  participants  in  the  hope  it  held 


The  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         165 

out,  when  Jesus  said  to  the  men  of  his  time,  "  Take 
my  yoke  upon  you." 

As  to  the  territory  of  the  King,  it  is  not  geo- 
graphical. When  the  head  of  the  system  said 
•*  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you,"  He  de- 
scribed the  domain  of  His  supremacy  as  being  in 
time  present,  rather  a  sphere  than  a  territory  ;  He 
declared  the  inner  man  to  be  already,  at  the  time 
of  the  speech,  a  circuit  wherein  the  supremacy 
meant  existed  and  was  to  be  recognized.  The 
breast  of  the  human  being  was  its  focus  or  point  of 
concentration. 

But,  notwithstanding  the  spiritual  quality  attrib- 
uted by  this  apothegm  to  the  present  domain  of 
the  kingdom,  utterances  co-exist  with  the  apothegm 
which  import  not  only  that  the  kingdom  was  to 
have  a  manifestation  in  the  visible  church  (a  truth 
implied  in  parables  already  quoted)  but  teach  that 
the  people  of  the  King  were  to  come  ultimately 
into  the  possession  of  an  outward  territory.  One 
while  the  Saviour  exhibited  the  kingdom  as  a 
system  to  be  entertained  in  the  boson.  Another 
while  He  exhibited  it  as  a  domain  and  company, 
which  were  (in  the  issue  of  things,  but  not  before 
this  issue)  to  be  made  accessible,  to  ingress.  He 
made  this  twofold  representation  in  a  single  sen- 
tence when  He  said,  ''Whosoever  shall  not  receive 


1 66  VisioJis  and  Narratives. 

the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child  he  shall  in  no 
wise  enter  therein."  The  system  appears  in  some 
cases,  in  one  of  its  aspects,  in  other  cases  on  a 
different  side  ;  in  some  connections  as  incipient,  in 
others  as  advanced  in  power  or  extent,  in  a  third 
class  of  utterances  as  consummated.  Its  ultimate 
stage  is  once  ^  distinguished  from  preceding  stages 
by  being  described  as  "  the  everlasting  kingdom  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  If  it  seems 
strange  that  such  distinctions  are  not  often  made 
thus  in  express  words — strange  that  one  and  the 
same  chapter  contains  both  the  prayer  '*  Thy  king- 
dom come  "  and  the  notification  "  The  kingdom  of 
God  is  come  upon  you  " — the  case  has  parallels.  It 
is  with  the  word  kingdom  as  it  is  with  the  word 
manhood.  The  latter  with  truth  and  propriety 
may  be  used  of  an  infant  newly  born,  as  when  a 
mother  is  said  to  rejoice  because  a  man  is  born  into 
the  world.  Yet  the  phrase  is  more  frequently  and 
even  distinctively  used  of  an  adult,  as  when  an 
apostle  says,  '*  When  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away 
childish  things."  The  kingdom  or  supremacy  of 
the  Son  of  man  was  potentially  all  that  it  was  to 
become,  when  Christ  in  His  earthly  ministry  pro- 
claimed it  as  present  ;  but  its  future  phases  would 
so  throw  into  the  shade  its  earlier    development, 

*  II  Pet.  i.  II. 


The  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         167 

that  only  the  later  development  came  to  be  com- 
monly denominated  the  kingdom  of  God.  A 
corresponding  use  of  the  words  "salvation," 
"adoption"  and  "  redemption  "  occurs  in  the  New 
Testament.  An  inward  salvation  already  belongs 
to  Christians,  and  is  often  attributed  to  them  as  a 
thing  at  present  existent  ;  yet  salvation  is  fre- 
quently spoken  of  as  future.  Believers  are  declared 
to  have  received  a  spirit  of  adoption  ;  nevertheless 
they  are  said  to  groan  as  waiting  for  adoption. 
Redemption  took  place  in  an  important  sense  when 
Christ  laid  down  His  life  as  a  ransom  ;  yet  our 
Lord,  after  mentioning  antecedents  to  His  second 
coming  says,  "  When  these  things  begin  to  come 
to  pass,  lift  up  your  heads,  because  your  redemption 
draweth  nigh."  In  most  cases  the  connection  is 
sufficient  to  determine  whether  it  is  the  realm 
within,  the  company  of  persons  who  subject  them- 
selves to  the  monarch,  the  territory  which  the 
Sovereign  is  ultimately  to  assign  for  inhabitation,  or 
the  regime  according  to  which  the  head  of  the 
kingdom  both  sways  the  inner  man  and  provides 
for  the  man  thus  swayed,  the  new  heaven  and  the 
new  earth.  As  for  the  parts  of  space  -  thus  de- 
nominated, the  "earth"  is  of  course  the  planet 
which  we  inhabit,  and  heaven,  or  the   heavens,  is, 

*  II  Pet.  iii.  13. 


i68  Visions  and  Narratives. 

in  the  diction  of  the  Bible,  the  name  of  the  regions 
which  men  contemplate  when  they  look  upward. 
To  be  a  heaven  and  an  earth,  the  localities  meant 
must  be  in  some  sort  analogous  to  the  parts  of 
space  humanly  known  by  these  names  ;  and  to  be 
new,  these  localities  must  in  some  respect  differ 
from  the  heaven  and  the  earth  which  now  are. 

When  St.  Paul  writes,*  *'  Flesh  and  blood  can- 
not inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,"  the  connection 
shows  that  he  speaks  of  the  kingdom  as  it  is  to 
exist  when  it  reaches  its  final  stage.  Does  he 
mean  that  in  order  to  enter  this  kingdom  men 
must  be  without  bodies  }  This  cannot  be  his 
meaning,  because  ''rising,"  "being  raised  up," 
"  resurrection,"  is  the  subject  of  discourse  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  the  chapter  in  which  he 
writes  the  momentous  sentence  concerning  which 
we  inquire.  After  alleging  that  the  rise  of  the 
Redeemer  from  the  condition  of  the  dead,  the 
resurrection  which  occurred  in  the  tomb  of  Joseph 
of  Arimathea,  was  a  specimen  and  earnest  of  a 
raising  or  resurrection  which  is  to  come  to  Christ's 
people  universally,  the  sacred  writer  proposes  the 
question,  "  With  what  body  do  they  come  .'*  "  He 
meets  the  question  by  declaring  that  there  are 
bodies  terrestrial  and  bodies  celestial  ;  classes    of 

*  I  Cor.  XV.  50. 


The  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.        169 

bodies  differing  from  each  other  in  kind.  He  writes 
that  the  grain  deposited  in  the  ground,  though  in 
some  respects  the  same  as  the  plant  which  comes 
up  is  in  other  respects  different  thereform,  and  he 
thus  gives  it  to  be  understood  that  a  human  body- 
interred  may  differ  from  the  body  which  shall  be 
raised  up.  "As  was  the  earthy  [Adam],  such  also 
are  the  earthy,  and  as  is  the  heavenly  [the  second 
Adam],  such  are  they  also  that  are  heavenly.  As 
we  have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall 
also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly."  It  is  after 
such  statements  that  the  apostle  writes,  "  Now 
this  I  say,  that  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God."  The  remarkable  declaration  is 
followed  and  explained  by  statements  to  the  effect 
that  at  the  second  coming  of  our  Saviour  mankind 
shall  undergo  a  transmutation.  "We  shall  all  be 
changed."  Not  a  mere  transformation,  but  a  change 
amounting  to  a  transubstantiation  ;  that  is  to  say, 
a  change  in  the  very  material  of  the  bodies  belong- 
ing to  the  persons  spoken  of,  must  be  meant ;  if 
these  statements  are  coherent  with  the  theme  of 
discourse  and  tend  to  explain  or  confirm  the  al- 
legation that  "  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God."  On  the  supposition  that  the 
statements  are  possessed  of  coherence  and  such 
tendency,   the    allegation   must   import   not    that 


I/O  Visions  and  Narratives.    • 

corporeity  will  in  the  issue  of  things  be  exchanged 
for  incorporeity,  but  that  our  present  corporeity 
will  be  exchanged  for  a  corporeity  not  fleshy  nor 
sanguineous,  but  of  a  sublimer  sort — such  a  cor- 
poreity, perhaps,  as  some  have  imagined  to  belong 
to  angels.  Body  and  flesh  are  words  not  precisely 
the  same  in  meaning.  "  Body  "  points  to  the 
frame,  the  system  of  organs.  ''  Flesh,"  [especially 
when  conjoined  with  "  blood,"  and  when  interpret- 
ed in  the  sequel  by  ''  corruption  "  or  the  "  corrupt- 
ible "]  points  to  the  material  of  the  bodies  which 
men  have  by  nature.  *'  There  is  a  natural  body 
and  there  is  a  spiritual  body." 

What  the  spiritual  body  may  prove  to  be  we  know 
not  at  present.  Disembodiment  does  not  appear  in 
Scripture  as  a  thing  desirable  in  itself.  It  appears  as 
having  been  from  the  first  a  penal  thing.  It  involved 
a  penal  return  to  the  dust  of  which  man  had  been 
made.  Disembodiment  deprives  us  of  sensation — 
that  is  to  say,  of  such  impressions  on  the  mind  as 
come  through  the  medium  of  the  outward  senses. 
The  dead*  "live  to  God."  They  are  not  extinct. 
But  the  deceased  are  beyond  the  reach  of  parents, 
children  and  husbands,  and,  so  far  as  we  know  or 
have  reason  to  believe,  are  destitute  of  organs  by 
which  they  might  touch,  hear  or  see  these  persons 

*  Luke  XX.  38. 


The  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         171 

if  present.  They  may  have  blessedness  in  their 
reminiscences,  their  prospects,  their  consciousness, 
and  the  felicity  such  things  are  capable  of  impart- 
ing ;  but  where  in  Scripture  do  they  appear  as 
possessed  of  the  entirety  of  their  nature,  or  as  hav- 
ing reached  their  culmination  ?  Re-embodiment, 
on  the  contrary,  appears  distinctly  in  Holy  Writ  as 
matter  of  promise.  If  Christians  are  to  have  a 
corporeity  in  systems  of  organs  more  homogeneous 
with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  more  helpful  to  the  spirit 
of  holiness  which  may  have  come  to  reside  in  them- 
selves, if  they  are  to  possess  organs  of  sight,  of 
hearing  and  of  other  sensation,  analogous  to  such 
eyes,  ears,  and  the  like,  as  we  at  present  possess, 
but  better  tending  to  sanctity  ;  these  organisms 
may  realize  for  them  the  idea  of  the  *'  spiritual 
body."  *'  Behold  !  I  show  you  a  mystery.  We 
shall  not  all  sleep,"  [the  sleep  of  death]  *'  but  we 
shall  all  be  changed — in  a  moment,  in  the  twink- 
ling of  an  eye,  at  the  last  trump.  The  trumpet 
shall  sound  and  we  shall  be  changed."  Capital 
which  we  possess  may  exchange  its  form  of  invest- 
ment, as,  for  example,  hovels  may  by  possibility  be 
exchanged  for  palaces  ;  so  human  souls  will  have 
an  investiture  in  bodies  incapable  of  death,  insus- 
ceptible of  mortality.  Decease,  dissolution,  death, 
is  to  be  engorged  by  an   adverse  power,  a  power 


1/2  Visions  and  Narratives. 

annihilating  to  death.  **  This  corruptible  must  put 
on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  immortality.  So 
when  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incorrup- 
tion, and  this  mortal  immortality,  then  shall  be 
brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written,  Death  is 
swallowed  up  in  victory."  "As  by  one  man 
came  death,"  *  '*  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  in 
that  all  have  sinned."  ''But  now  is  Christ  risen 
from  the  dead,  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  sleep, 
for  as  by  man  came  death,  by  man  came  also  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead"  t — that  is  to  say,  came  in 
the  potential.  The  fruit  of  the  principle  of  resur- 
rection ripened  first  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  whole  crop  will  ripen  later,  in  the  persons  of 
them  that  shall  be  Christ's  at  His  coming.J  "  We 
look  for  the  Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
shall  CHANGE  our  vile  BODIES,  that  they  may  be 
fashioned  like  unto  His  glorious  BODY,  according  to 
the  mighty  working  whereby  He  is  able  to  subdue 
all  things  unto  Himself" 

To  insist.  An  insect  has  a  severalty  in  its  condi- 
tions. It  is  at  one  time  a  caterpillar,  at  another  time 
a  butterfly.  A  like  severalty  may  be  predicted  of  a 
human  being.  He  is  now  an  infant,  then  a  youth, 
subsequently  a  man  ;  at  first  in  the  nursery,  sec- 
ondly in  the  school,  thirdly  in  the  broad   world. 

_         *  Rom. V.  12.  fl  Cor.  xv.  20.  %  Phil.  iii.  20,  21. 


The  Kingdom  to  be  Set  Up  by  God.         173 

So  is  it  with  the  kingdom  set  up  by  the  God  of 
heaven.  It  has  different  ages,  states  and  spheres. 
And,  as  in  the  order  of  nature,  it  is  in  the  infant 
and  adolescent  stages  that  a  person  requires  the 
most  care,  so  is  it  in  the  earlier  phases  of  the  life 
from  above.  When  the  kingdom  takes  the  form 
of  a  sway  within  the  breast,  and  when  the  empire 
assumes  an  appearance  and  shape  as  the  church, 
then  it  is  that  the  regnancy  requires  the  most 
sedulous  cherishing.  This  cherishing  is  the  duty 
present  and  pressing.  On  the  other  hand  in  your 
zeal  for  the  truth  that  the  kingdom  set  up  by  the 
God  of  heaven  for  the  Son  of  man  has  already 
come,  do  not  deny  the  truth  that  this  kingdom  is 
still  to  come,  or  the  truth  that  the  future  regime 
is  to  be  an  outcome  of  the  present.  Both  things 
belong  to  the  same  supremacy.  The  acorn  be- 
comes an  oak  ;  the  seed  sown  in  the  ground  rises 
above  the  ground  a  plant.  As  in  these  cases,  so 
in  the  order  engendered  for  human  beings  by  the 
supremacy  of  the  Son  of  man — the  potential  is  to 
become  actual. 

The  potential  was  conveyed  in  the  assurances, 
"  If  the  Spirit  .  .  .  dwell  in  you,  He  that  raised 
Chris-t  from  the  dead  shall  also  quicken  your 
mortal     bodies     by-  His    Spirit.""^     ''It    is     your 

*Rom.  viii.  ii. 


174  Visions  and  Narratives. 

Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom."  * 
The  actual  is  to  take  place  when  Christ  shall 
appear  the  second  time.  At  or  before  this  second 
appearing  all  obstacles  to  the  complete  accomplish- 
ment of  His  work  are  to  be  put  under  His  feet. 
What  would  not  submit  to  Him  with  good  will  is  to 
succumb  with  or  without  good  will.f  **  He  must 
REIGN  till  He  hath  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet. 
The  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death." 
Death  having  been  destroyed,  the  whole,  the  in- 
ception and  the  consummation,  the  kingdom  in- 
choate and  the  kingdom  perfected,  the  King 
crowned  with  thorns  and  the  King  coming  in  the 
glory  of  the  Father  with  the  holy  angels,  will  turn 
out  to  be  a  unit  planned  before  the  world  was, 
partially  made  manifest  eighteen  centuries  ago,  and 
carried  to  its  ultimate  stage  at  the  second  advent. 
If  your  King  is  to  be  such  in  the  ideal,  you  cannot 
but  be  members  of  His  kingdom  when  this  reaches 
the  ideal.  If  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you,  it 
will  resemble  the  germ  within  a  seed  ;  it  will  be 
evolved,  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear  ;  last  of  all,  the  crop  harvested  and 
ingathered,  the  garner  being  the  new  heavens  and 
the  new  earth.  That  which  as  a  regnancy  had 
entered  the  souls  of  the  people  of  Christ,  will  as  a 

*  Luke  xii.  32.  f  I  Cor.  xv.  25,  26. 


TJie  Kingdom  to  be  Set   i'p  by  God.         175 

realm  be  itself  entered,  when  this  Person,  the  Son 
of  God,  incarnate,  shall  say  to  them  on  His  right 
hand,  *'  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the 
kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world."  He  who  reigns  not  only  over  the 
persons  but  within  the  hearts  of  his  subjects,  who 
reigns  likewise  with  immeasurable  beneficence, 
infinite  power  and  indestructible  life,  can  hardly 
fail  to  endow  his  people  with  the  new  corporeity  or 
to  colonize  them  in  the  everlasting  territory,  with 
view  to  which  He  took  upon  Him  their  nature, 
underwent  their  death  and  gave  them  an  earnest 
in  His  resurrection. 


CHAPTER    XIIL 

BELSHAZZAR. 

Daniel  V. 

Belshazzar'S  banquet  has  bearings  which  are  not 
always  observed.  The  account  of  the  feast  may  be 
expressed  as  follows  : 

Belshazzar,  a  Chaldean  king,  was  a  successor  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.  The  latter  had  captured  Jerusa- 
lem, carried  away  many  of  its  principal  inhabitants 
to  Babylon,  and  removed  thither  the  silver  and  gold 
vessels  belonging  to  the  temple  of  the  captured  city. 
Belshazzar  made  a  feast  for  a  thousand  of  his  lords. 
In  his  wine  he  sent  for  the  sacred  vessels  of  the 
despoiled  temple.  It  would  be  a  triumph  to  his 
idols  if  he  coupled  with  his  hymns  to  these  deities, 
the  use  of  the  vessels  which  had  been  consecrated  to 
the  God  of  Israel.  The  king  and  his  company  drank 
wine  therefrom,  withal  praising  the  gods  they  idola- 
trously  worship.     Within  the  hour  which  had  begun 

with  the  introduction  of  the  consecrated  vessels  into 

176 


BclsJiazzar. 


m 


the  hall  illuminated  for  the  great  supper,  there  came 
forth  fingers  of  a  man's  hand.  The  fingers  wrote. 
The  writing  was  done  upon  the  plaster  of  the  wall. 
Belshazzar  was  terror-stricken,  the  joints  of  his 
knees  were  loosed,  and  his  knees  struck  one  against 
the  other.  He  cried  aloud  for  his  wise  men.  He 
neither  knew  the  thing  meant  by  the  inscription  nor 
could  decipher  the  writing.  He  promised  that 
whosoever  should  read  the  writing  and  show  the 
interpretation  thereof,  should  be  invested  in  purple, 
have  a  chain  of  gold  put  about  his  neck  and  be  the 
third  ruler  in  the  kingdom. 

The  wise  men  failing  either  to  interpret  or  to  read, 
Daniel,  one  of  the  captives  from  Judaea,  was  called 
in  at  the  instance  of  the  queen-mother.  He  pro- 
nounced the  inscription  to  be  the  Chaldean  words, 
Mene,  Mene,  Tekel  Upharsin — words  equivalent  to 
the  English  phrases  **  numbered,"  '*  weighed  "  and 
*'  divisions."  This,  he  said,  was  the  writing  in- 
scribed. And  this  is  the  interpretation  of  the  writ- 
ing, "God  hath  numbered  thy  kingdom  and  brought 
it  to  an  end.  Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances 
and  found  wanting.  Thy  kingdom  is  divided  and 
given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians."  The  four  words, 
when  pronounced  by  Daniel,  seem  to  have  been 
identified  by  the  monarch  as  the  words  written  on 
the  wall.     The  deciphering   and  the  power  it  im- 


1^8  Visions  and  Narratives. 

plied  attested  the  interpretation.  The  king,  per- 
haps for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  prophet's 
prayers,  performed  his  promise.  Belshazzar  com- 
manded, and  Daniel  was  clothed  in  purple,  a  golden 
chain  was  put  about  his  neck,  and  he  was  pro- 
claimed the  third  ruler  in  the  kingdom.  In  that 
night  Belshazzar,  the  Chaldean  king,  was  slain. 

The  narrative  proceeds  to  tell  that  in  the  parti- 
tioning of  the  Chaldean  empire,  the  partitioning 
foretold  in  the  words  "  Thy  kingdom  is  divided  and 
given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians,"  the  central  por- 
tion, with  its  capital,  the  city  of  Babylon,  fell  to  the 
share  of  the  Medes.  So  much  is  implied  in  the  words 
translated  "  Darius,  the  Mede,  took  the  kingdom." 
It  is  true  these  words  have  been  understood  as  mean- 
ing that  Darius  captured  the  kingdom  of  Belshazzar. 
But  the  statement  to  be  found  elsewhere  *  within  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  that  ''  Darius  of  the  seed  of  the 
Medes  was  made  king  over  the  realm  of  the  Chal- 
deans," corresponds  with  the  fact  that  Darius  was 
not  the  chief  person  in  the  conquest  of  Babylon,  and 
with  the  probability  that  the  possession  of  that  city 
was  conceded  to  the  Mede  by  the  Persian  conqueror, 
Cyrus.  Writers  seem  to  agree  that  the  words  of  the 
original  mean  that  the  kingly  authority  in  Chaldea, 
when  it  had  departed  from  Belshazzar,  was  taken 

*ix.  I. 


Belshazzar.  179 

by    Darius    in    a    sense    rather    passive   than   ac- 
tive. 

The  Revised  Version  removes  the  danger  of  mis- 
construction by  substituting  the  word  **  received  " 
in  place  of  the  word  "  took,"  viz.,  by  saying  "  Dari- 
us, the  Mede,  received  the  kingdom."  There  are 
other  places  where  the  Revised  Version,  while  as 
true  to  the  original  as  the  current  English  Bible, 
gives  a  similar  relief  from  difficulties.  To  say  our 
conversation  is  in  Heaven,*  hardly  expresses  to  the 
mind  of  the  modern  reader  the  idea  that  we  are 
aliens  residing  away  from  the  city  to  which  we  be- 
long, viz.,  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem,  though  this  is 
the  meaning  of  the  Greek. f  To  say,  "  I  know  noth- 
ing by  myself,  yet  am  I  not  hereby  justified,"  seems 
incongruous,  because  in  the  English  of  the  present 
day  (different  from  the  English  of  two  centuries 
ago),  knowing  nothing  by  oneself  hardly  imports  any 
idea  except  the  want  of  a  knowledge  gained  inde- 
pendently— a  thought  which  does  not  suit  the  con- 
nection. The  thing  meant  in  the  passage  would  be 
expressed  in  modern  English  by  substituting  the 
word  "against"  for  the  word  *' by."  The  writer 
means  that  he  is  not  accused  by  his  own  conscience. 
To  say  with  reference  to  the  day  of  judgment,  "  Then 
shall  every  man  have  praise  of  God,"  %  hardly  agrees 

*Phil.  iii.  20.  t  I  Cor.  iv.  4.  J  i  Cor.  iv.  5. 


i8o  Visions  and  Narratives. 

with  other  teachings  of  the  Bible  with  regard  to  the 
great  day.  You  feel  the  want  of  something  to  show 
that  the  praise  meant  is  the  praise  due  to  the  man. 
The  Greek  warrants  the  insertion  of  a  word  to  this 
effect.  In  the  English  of  the  age  of  those  great 
scholars,  the  makers  of  the  current  version,  **  By 
and  by"  meant  immediately.  You  require  ''straight- 
way," or  some  such  word,  in  several  places  where 
"by  and  by"  occurs.  These  ancient  phrases  long 
since  became  inexpressive  of  the  meanings  intended, 
and  their  continued  use  in  places  where  they  are 
now  inappropriate,  and  tend  to  obscure  the  sense, 
is  to  be  regretted.  Why  not  have  the  Scriptures  in 
a  tongue  "  understanded  of  the  people  }  "  Would 
not  the  Bible  be  more  read  if  it  were  more  intelligi- 
ble }  Ought  not  the  Church,  the  witness  and  keeper 
of  Holy  Writ,  to  present  the  sacred  book  to  the 
more  unlearned  of  her  members  in  the  most  com- 
prehensible condition  into  which  her  pastors  can  put 
the  volume  } 

The  history  of  Belshazzar's  banquet  illustrates  the 
curious  co-existence  of  liberty  and  dependence 
which  obtains  in  human  beings.  Belshazzar,  as  we 
have  seen,  neither  understood  the  import,  nor  was 
able  to  read  the  words  of  the  inscription  upon  the 
plaster  of  the  wall.  The  Chaldean  wise  men  had 
given  him  no  help  to  the  meaning  or  even  the  de- 


Bclshazzar.  iSl 

ciphering.     How   came  it  then    that  the  king  un- 
hesitatingly believed  Daniel's  statement  of  the  sense 
of  the  writing  ?     He  may  have  believed  the  inter- 
pretation because  the  deciphering  had  been  credible. 
But  how  had  the  monarch  verified  this  deciphering  } 
It  may  be  that  some  remembrance  of  the  movement 
of  the  fingers  which  had  written  slumbered  in  the 
mind  of  the  king  and  was  awakened  by  the  decipher- 
ing of  the  prophet.     Memory  is  often  dormant  and 
is  aroused  in  a  way  as  singular  as  this.     It  may  be 
that  some    marks    made    by   the   hand  which   had 
written  were   still  discernible  upon   the   "plaster" 
(the   lime   whitewash)    of    the   wall,    and    became 
readable  when  their  connection  with  each  other  had 
been  indicated,  although  not  readable  before.     The 
monarch  could  compare  the  reading  given  by  Dan- 
iel with  the  impressions  on  his  mind  and  the  marks 
upon  the  wall.     His    knowledge   had  been  insuffi- 
cient to  discover  the  truth,    but   was  sufficient  to 
test  the  statements  of  the  discoverer,  especially  if 
his  conscience  testified  to  the  statements.     On  sup- 
position that  the  case  was  such,  the  facts  were  analo- 
gous with  the  experience  of  mankind  in  relation  to  a 
thousand  matters.    The  mass  of  mankind  did  not  dis- 
cover  for  themselves   the  principle  of  gravitation, 
or  the  doctrine  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.     Nor 
did  they  of  the  mass  invent  for  themselves  the  steam 


1 82  Visions  and  Narratives. 

engine.  In  like  manner  mankind  could  not  of  them- 
selves discover  the  great  truths  of  Divine  Revela- 
tion, and  after  these  truths  were  revealed,  they  con- 
tinued to  need  reiterated  instruction  with  regard 
thereto — so  true  it  is  that  men  are  dependent.  On 
the  other  hand,  after  Newton,  Harvey  and  Watt  had 
published  their  discoveries  or  inventions,  there  was 
no  want  of  criteria  by  which  these  discoveries  or 
inventions  could  be  tested.  Similarly,  when  Jesus 
Christ  had  made  His  revelations,  these  revelations 
could  be  compared  with  man's  moral  sense,  and  with 
the  life  and  death  of  the  Revealer.  After  the 
amount  of  the  revelations  had  been  written,  people 
could  compare  the  instructions  given  by  their  clergy 
with  the  tenor  of  the  Bible.  So,  though  dependent, 
they  possess  a  liberty.  In  accordance  with  these 
facts,  we  find  it  everywhere  taught  in  the  Scriptures 
both  that  we  need  a  teaching  priest,  and  that  we 
ought,  "  of  ourselves,  to  judge  that  which  is  right." 
When  the  revelations  made  by  St.  Paul  at  Berea 
are  mentioned,  it  is  added,  in  commendation  of  his 
hearers,  that  these  were  more  noble  than  those  in 
Thessalonica,  in  that  they  searched  the  Scriptures, 
whether  those  things  were  so."  Therefore  many  of 
them  believed.  Prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good. 

*Acts  xvii.  II,  12. 


Belskaszar.  183 

Belshazzar's  feast  has  a  bearing  on  the  difficulties 
of  Scripture,  even  such  as  appear  in  the  original. 

More  than  one  thing  in  the  narrative  is  curious. 
The  account  implies  that  Belshazzar  was  king  in 
Bab}lon,  and  was  there  killed,  whereas  all  other 
history  is  distinct  to  the  point  that  Naboned  was 
the  king  reigning  over  the  Chaldeans  at  the  time  of 
the  capture,  was  at  this  time  absent  from  Babylon 
and  was  not  slain.  For  more  than  sixteen  hundred 
years  this  discrepancy  was  keenly  felt  by  believers. 
It  was  an  enigma  which  troubled  inquirers  as  early 
as  Josephus  and  later  than  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  The 
difficulty  was  first  removed  by  a  decipherment  of 
the  present  century.  In  the  year  1854,  the  English 
explorer,  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  discovered  a  cylin- 
der, an  inscription  upon  which  made  it  manifest 
that  Naboned  of  Babylon  had  associated  with 
himself  a  son  of  his,  named  Bilsharuzur,  and  had 
given  this  son  the  title  of  king.  This  discovery, 
besides  clearing  up  the  difference  between  biblical 
and  profane  history,  explained  the  fact  that  he  who 
should  decipher  and  interpret  the  writing  on  the 
wall  was  to  be  third  ruler  in  the  kingdom,  the  third 
rather  than  the  second. 

Our  knowledge  in  the  future  state  will  compare 
with  our  present  knowledge  as  the  thoughts  of  an 
adult  compare  with  the  thoughts  which  he  enter- 


184  Visions  and  Narratives. 

tained  in  his  boyhood,  as  personal  knowledge  com- 
pares with  knowledge  gained  intermediately,  as 
perfect  knowledge  compares  with  knowledge  which 
is  partial.     So  says  St.  Paul  when  he  writes  :  * 

When  I  was  a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child,  I 
understood  as  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,  but  when 
I  became  a  man,  I  put  away  childish  things.  Now 
we  see  by  means  of  a  mirror,  in  an  enigma  [such  is 
the  most  literal  translation  of  those  apostolic  words] 
but  then  face  to  face.  Now  I  know  in  part,  but 
then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known."  The 
joy  which  will  come  when  we  shall  thus  exchange 
puerile  and  partial  knowledge  for  the  knowledge 
which  comes  of  ocular  demonstration,  is  but  poorly 
figured  by  the  satisfaction  which  came  to  believers 
by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson's  discovery.  Until  the 
time  of  adult  and  perfect  understanding  comes,  let 
us  be  patient,  and  if  theories  for  the  purpose  of  rec- 
onciling discrepancies  are  proposed,  let  us  leceive 
them  as  hypotheses  which  may  at  last  be  over- 
turned by  discoveries  better  than  it  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man  to  conceive.  ''Behold,  the  half  was 
not  told  me." 

*l  Cor.  xiii.  9 — 12. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE  MESSENGER  OF  THE   COVENANT. 
Malachi  III.  I. 

In  the  promise,  '*  The  Lord  whom  ye  seek  shall  sud- 
denly come  to  His  temple  and  the  messenger  of  the 
covenant  whom  ye  delight  in,"  the  phrase  "  the 
messenger  of  the  covenant  "  is  curious.  What  cov- 
enant is  intended  ?  Who  could  be  meant  by  the 
messenger  ? 

With  regard  to  the  former  of  these  questions,  the 
answer  must  be  this.  Inasmuch  as  the  prophecy 
came  through  a  prophet  of  Israel  and  was  addressed 
to  the  Israelitish  people,  the  phrase  **  the  covenant," 
used  without  limitations  or  explanation,  could  hardly 
import  any  covenant  but  that  which  was  familiar 
to  the  minds  of  this  prophet  and  this  people,  viz., 
that  system  of  promises  and  conditions  which  had 
been  given  to  the  forefather  of  the  Israelitish  race 
and  renewed  to  Israel  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Moses.    A  British  statesman  addressing  a  British  as- 

185 


1 86  Visions  and  Narratives. 

semblage,  if  he  spoke  of  the  Constitution,  could  not 
but  mean  the  British  Constitution,  and  a  prophet 
of  Israel  writing  a  book  which  from  beginning  to 
end  addresses  the  Israelitish  race,  must  be  construed 
analogously.  The  covenant  meant  in  Malachi 
must  be  that  which  had  been  made  with  Abraham 
and  had  by  means  of  Moses  received  modifica- 
tions. 

With  regard  to  *'  the  messenger,"  a  person  will  find 
himself  on  the  track  to  the  meaning,  if  he  shall  con- 
sult an  English  dictionary  of  the  larger  sort,  such 
as  those  of  Worcester  and  Webster,  where  it  will 
appear  that  the  words  angel  and  messenger  were 
in  the  older  English  equivalent  phrases.  The  word 
angel,  in  the  time  of  our  translators,  was  not  so  re- 
stricted as  it  is  in  modern  English,  but  was  applied 
to  any  being  who  goes  forth  upon  an  errand.  The 
terms  could  be  used  interchangeably.  With  this  in 
mind  and  with  the  remembrance  that  the  phrase, 
the  messenger  of  the  covenant  may  mean  either 
the  messenger  covenanted  to  the  chosen  people  or 
the  messenger  covenanting  to  that  race,  an  inquirer 
will  find  in  the  earlier  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
enough  to  show  that  the  messenger  meant  by 
Malachi  could  be  no  other  than  the  person  who, 
when  the  covenant  with  Abraham  was  made,  acted 
as  the  medium  through  whom  this  covenant  came, 


The  Mt'sscJigcr  of  the  Covenant.  187 

viz.:  the  person  called  **  the  angel  of  the  Lord  "  in 
the  statement  *'  the  angel  of  the  Lord  called  out  of 
Heaven  unto  Abraham  and  said  :  *  By  myself  have 
I  sworn,  saith  the  Lord,  that  in  blessing  I  will  bless 
thee,  and  in  multiplying  I  will  multiply  thy  seed," 
etc.  The  person  meant  in  Malachi  could  be  none 
other  than  the  person  who  covenanted  with  Abra- 
ham, unless  he  was  the  messenger  or  angel  cov- 
enanted in  the  promise, t  ''  Behold  I  send  an  angel 
before  thee  to  keep  thee  in  the  way  .  .  .  provoke 
him  not,  for  my  name  is  in  him."  It  matters  little 
whether  you  take  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  al- 
ternatives. But  it  is  material  to  observe  in  both  of 
these  promises  of  the  books  of  Moses,  that  the  He- 
brew word  translated  "  angel  "  is  the  word  trans- 
lated "  messenger  "  in  Malachi.  The  Hebrew  phrase 
means  a  person  sent  on  an  errand,  neither  more  nor 
less.  If  you  have  ''  the  angel  of  the  Lord"  in  Gen- 
esis and  Exodus,  you  ought  to  have  *'  the  angel  of 
the  Covenant  "  in  Malachi — and  vice  versa.  Having 
this  identity  of  phrasing,  you  would  require  nothing 
besides  to  enable  you  to  identify  the  message- 
bearer  intended. 

It  seems  strange  that  in  a  passage  quoted  above 
from  the  Book  of  Exodus  (the  passage  where  the 
"angel"  appears  as  covenanted)  the  Divine  Father 

*  Gen.  xxii.  15-17.  f  Exod.  xxiii.  20,  21 


1 88  Visions  and  Nai'ratives. 

declares,  in  relation  to  the  benefactor  promised, 
"  My  name  is  in  Him."  Nevertheless,  the  like  of  this 
strangeness  appears  again  and  again  in  the  Old 
Testament.  The  phenomenon  displays  itself  with 
especial  vividness,  if  you  remember  that  when  the 
phrase  ''  the  Lord  "  in  the  English  Bible  is  printed 
in  capital  letters,  the  phrase  in  the  original  is 
**  Jehovah."  For  example,  the  angel  is  alleged  by 
Jacob  to  have  given  commands  to  this  patriarch 
and  as  having  announced  himself — how  remarkably  ! 
*'  The  angel  of  God  ''  said  :***...  I  am  the  God 
of  Bethel,  where  thou  anointedst  the  pillar  ;  where 
thou  vowedst  a  vow  unto  me.  Arise,  get  thee  out 
from  this  land  and  return  unto  the  land  of  thy 
kindred."  An  angel  of  God  hesitates  not  to  say 
"  I  am  the  God  of  Bethel,"  hesitates  not  to  announce 
Himself  as  the  being  who  had,  at  Bethel,  appeared 
at  the  top  of  the  symbolic  ladder  and  declared  Him- 
self to  be  Jehovah.t  The  same  patriarch,  when  ex- 
pecting death  as  near  at  hand,  blessed  the  sons  of 
Joseph  in  the  words,  J  "  God,  before  whom  my  fathers 
Abraham  and  Isaac  did  walk,  the  God  which  fed 
me  all  my  life  long  unto  this  day,  the  angel  which 
redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads."  Similar 
was  the  case  at  the  call  of  Moses, §  "  the  angel  of  the 

*Gen.  xxxi.  11-13.  f  Gen.  xxviii.    13-19. 

X  Gen.  xlviii.  15,  16.  §  Exod.  iii.  2-14. 


The  Messenger  of  the  Covenant.  189 

Lord  appeared  unto  him,  in  a  flame  of  fire,  out  of 
the  midst  of  a  bush,"  When  tliis  angel  spoke,  he  is 
represented  as  saying  :  *'  I  am  the  God  of  thy 
father."  Moses  is  represented  as  having  hid  his 
face,  because  he  was  afraid  to  look  upon  God.  In 
answer  to  the  question  what  was  the  name  of  the 
speaker,  the  voice  from  the  midst  of  the  bush,  the 
voice  of  the  angel,  said  unto  Moses  :  "  I  am  that  I  am 
.  .  .  Thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 
Jehovah,  God  of  your  fathers  .  .  .  hath  sent  me  unto 
you.  This  is  my  name  forever,  and  this  is  my  memo- 
rial to  all  generations."  To  warrant  such  language, 
the  angel  must  have  been  of  Divine  nature.  In  all 
these  passages  of  the  books  of  Genesis  and  Exodus, 
the  word  translated  angel  is  the  word  translated 
messenger  in  the  utterance  made  through  Malachi ; 
*'The  Lord  whom  ye  seek  shall  suddenly  come 
to  His  temple,  and  the  messenger  of  the  cove- 
nant." 

Has  the  phenomenon  reappeared  }  Has  the  mes- 
senger of  the  covenant — the  angel  who  covenanted 
with  the  patriarchs,  the  angel  who  was  covenanted 
to  Israel — made  a  new  advent  t  It  was  some  four 
hundred  years  after  the  time  of  Malachi  that  our 
Lord  appeared.  Jesus  came  to  the  temple  of  God 
at  Jerusalem.     He  treated  this  temple  as  His.*     As 

*John  ii.  14-21. 


190  Visions  and  Narratives. 

though  the  owner  of  the  sanctuary,  he  twice  ex- 
pelled therefrom  the  money  changers  who  profaned 
its  sacredness  by  their  traffic.  When  He  was  asked, 
What  sign  showest  Thou,  seeing  Thou  doest  these 
things ?  He  made  the  answer,  ''Destroy  this  temple, 
and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up  again."  Since 
the  evangelist  tells  us  that  in  thus  saying  Jesus 
spake  of  the  temple  of  His  body,  His  language  was 
scarcely  less  than  equivalent  to  a  declaration  that 
His  person  enshrined  the  Deity,  as  the  temple  of 
stone  and  cement  enshrined  the  Deity.  The  New 
Testament  describes  Him  as  Mediator  of  a  New 
Covenant  :  *  He  declared  Himself  a  Messenger,  a 
person  sent,  in  the  words, t  "  The  living  Father  hath 
sent  me."  Add  to  these  facts  the  claims  which 
Jesus  made  for  Himself  in  the  utterances, J  *'  All 
men  should  honor  the  Son  even  as  they  honor  the 
Father,"  "I  and  my  Father  are  one."§  Does  the 
New  Testament  represent  our  Lord  as  the  declarer 
or  revealer  of  the  Father  1  For  example,  in  the  sen- 
tences :  *'  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time,  the 
only  begotten  Son  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Father,  He  hath  declared  Him,"  "  No  man 
knoweth  the  Father  but  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom 
the  Son  shall  reveal  Him."  ||    Perhaps  it  was  because 

*  Heb.  ix.  15.  t  John  vi.  57.  |John  v.  23  ;  x.  30. 

§  John  i.  18.  II  Matt.  xi.  27. 


The  Messenger  of  the  Covenant.  191 

of  the  fact  that  with  us  the  word  of  mouth  is  the 
thing  by  which  we  reveal  or  declare  our  meaning, 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  the  Christ  appears  in  the 
New  Testament  as  the  declarer  or  revealer  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Father,  that  this  incomparable  per- 
son is  sometimes,  in  the  writings  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, called  the  "  Word"  ;  for  example,  in  the  pas- 
sage *  "  the  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among 
us."  At  any  rate  there  is  no  room  for  doubt  as  to 
the  question  whom  the  evangelist  means  by  this 
phrase,  "  the  Word  " — no  ground  for  doubt  that  the 
evangelist  intends  to  designate  the  only  being  who 
could,  in  the  New  Testament,  be  represented  as  be- 
coming incarnate  ;  and  as  if  for  the  purpose  of  teach- 
ing that  the  Word  and  the  Messenger  of  the  Cov- 
enant were  one  and  the  same — plainly  with  the  in- 
tention of  teaching  that  such  a  severalty  from  and 
identity  with  God  as  belonged  to  the  Angel  of  the 
Covenant,  belonged  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
evangelist  writes,  "  the  Word  was  with  God  and 
the  Word  was  God." 

If  the  Messenger  of  the  Older  Covenant  could  be 
distinguished  from  his  sender,  and  yet  assume  the 
prerogative  of  this  sender,  so  could  and  so  did  the 
Mediator  of  the  Newer  Covenant.  If  the  phenom- 
enon is  mysterious,  if  its  rationale  is  beyond  human 

♦John  i.  1-14. 


192  Visions  and  Narratives. 

explanation,  if  the  phenomenon  is  nowhere  in  the 
Old  Testament  applied  to  practical  uses,  it  is  never- 
theless incontestably  existent  in  the  statements  of 
that  ancient  volume  ;  according  to  Malachi  it  was 
destined  to  reappear  in  the  history  of  Israel,  and 
according  to  the  New  Testament  it  did  appear  at 
the  rise  of  Christianity. 

Two  or  three  remarks  require  to  be  annexed  to 
the  foregoing. 

St.  Stephen  describes  Him  with  whom  Moses  held 
converse  on  the  Mount  as  the  **  Angel."  Though 
Exodus  *  says,  "  Moses  spake,  and  God  answered 
him  by  a  voice,"  Stephen  t  says,  concerning  Moses, 
"This  is  he  that  was  with  the  ^;/^^V  which  spake 
to  him  in  the  Mount  Sinai." 

As  regards  the  mysterious  quality  of  the  revela- 
tions with  which  this  chapter  is  concerned,  the 
manner  of  the  Divine  existence  passes  comprehen- 
sion. With  relation  to  a  Being  whom  we  have  not 
seen,  and  cannot  liken  to  anything  that  we  already 
know,  every  theory  which  we  can  form  must  be 
most  imperfect.  We  have  not  seen  God  ;  we  know 
with  knowledge,  strictly  so  called,  no  Being  with- 
out change  or  end,  no  uncaused  cause.  We  cannot 
liken  such  an  idea  to  anything  with  which  we  are 
acquainted.     How  true  is  the   thought  implied  by 

*  Exod.  xix.  19.  t-A-Cts  vii.  38. 


The  Messejigcr  of  the  Covenant.  193 

the  Divine  question,*  "  To  whom  will  ye  liken  or 
compare  me."  How  true  and  how  apposite  !  If  a 
being  is  such  that  he  cannot  be  comprehended  with- 
in the  grasp  of  our  minds,  if  he  is  invisible  and  of  a 
nature  to  which  there  is  nothing  analogous,  if  he 
cannot  be  likened  or  compared,  how  great  is  the 
reason  which  lies  in  the  saying,  Can  I,  by  searching, 
find  out  God  ?  Can  I  find  out  the  Almighty  unto 
perfection  ?  What  wonder  if  the  conception  of  a 
person  who  possesses  both  a  severalty  from  and  an 
identity  with  the  Universal  Father  is  beyond  us. 
Christians  are  like  multitudes  of  those  who  go  to 
sea.  Many  of  these  know  nothing  of  the  principles  of 
navigation,  nothing  of  the  compass,  nothing  of  the 
nature  of  the  steam  engine,  yet  their  confidence 
in  the  ship,  though  unaccompanied  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  philosophy  in  accordance  with  which 
the  vessel  proceeds,  is  justified  by  experience ; 
they  reach  the  haven  where  they  would  be. 
They  believe,  they  trust,  and  they  come  safely  to 
land. 

With  regard  to  the  connection  between  the  older 
and  the  newer  parts  of  the  Bible,  let  me  say  that 
the  Old  Testament  is  the  basis  of  the  New  in  par- 
ticulars which  are  not  always  recognized.  The  New 
Testament  has  much  use  for  the  truth  that  the  Son 

*  Isa.  xl.  iS. 


194  Visiojis  and  Narratives.    , 

of  man  is  superhuman,  is  divine,  since  this  book 
teaches  that  the  Son  needs  omniscience  and  omni- 
presence ;  the  doctrine  of  the  volume  being  that 
the  Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  committed  all 
judgment  unto  the  Son,  and  that  where  two  or  three 
are  gathered  in  Christ's  name,  there  is  Christ  in  the 
midst  of  them.  He  of  whom  such  statements  are 
true — He  who  is  to  be  the  arbiter  of  human  destinies 
— must  be  capable  of  discerning  motives,  of  reach- 
ing the  recesses  of  the  inner  man,  of  searching  the 
heart  and  trying  the  reins.  He  who  can  fulfill  the 
promise  to  every  two  or  three,  must  be  capable — in- 
asmuch as  His  people  live  in  countries  distant  from 
each  other  and  often  assemble  at  the  same  time — of 
vouchsafing  His  presence  ubiquitously.  We  cannot 
reconcile  the  different  parts  of  the  Gospel  unless  we 
recognize  Jesus  as  Divine.  For  the  purposes  of  the 
Old  Testament  a  plurality  in  the  Godhead  was  not 
so  necessary  to  be  known.  An  explicit  statement 
of  this  plurality  might  obscure  for  the  ages  for  which 
the  Old  Testament  was  made  the  monotheistic 
principle  which  for  those  ages  seems  to  have  been 
deemed  the  most  important  point.  Yet  in  Moses 
and  Malachi  we  have  this  Angel  of  the  Lord,  this 
mysterious  Messenger  of  the  Covenant,  told  of 
How  can  this  fact  be  accounted  for  except  upon  the 
hypothesis    that    the   existence    of  a   plurality    in 


TJie  Messenger  of  the  Covenant.  195 

the  Deity  was  a  truth,  and  was  in  after  times 
to  be  a  basis  for  an  ulterior  revelation  ? 

When  a  building  is  to  be  altered  and  enlarged, 
if  no  new  foundation  is  necessary,  if  on  removing 
the  soil  which  has  accumulated  on  and  about  the 
old  foundation,  the  discovery  is  made  that  the  sub- 
structure suffices  for  the  new  superstructure,  and 
had  more  than  sufficed  for  the  old,  the  presumption 
will  be  that  an  alteration  and  enlargement,  such  as 
are  now  intended,  has  been  within  the  intention  of 
the  original  architect.  In  like  manner,  when  going 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  meet 
with  ''the  messenger  or  angel  of  the  covenant,"  we 
conclude  that  Moses  was  intended  for  a  witness  to 
things  which  were  afterwards  to  be  spoken.  He 
put  a  veil  upon  his  face,  the  face  of  his  writings,  and 
this  veil  is  in  Christ  done  away.  The  Gospel  may 
be  described  as  a  mystery  which  had  been  kept 
secret  from  the  time  that  the  world  began,  but  by 
Christ  and  his  apostles  was,  by  means  of  the  Script- 
ures of  the  Prophets,  made  known  for  the  obedience 
of  faith. 

The  two  parts  of  our  Bible  bear  witness  to  each 
other,  the  Old  Testament  testifies  to  the  New. 
Christ  is  the  incarnation  of  the  Angel  of  the  Cov- 
enant. This  Saviour  is  both  human  and  divine  ;  so 
human    that    He    could    die   and    that    you    may 


196  Visions  and  Nm^ratives. 

be  confident  of  fellow  feeling  on  His  part  ;  so 
divine  that  you  may  feel  authorized  to  address 
to  Him  your  prayers,  and  may  feel  certain  that 
His  mediation  on  your  behalf  must  succeed.  Take 
the  voyage  of  life  in  this  ship  :  be  confident  that 
it  will  land  you  at  the  haven  where  you  would  be. 


^ 


